3. Abraham Lincoln Courthouse Marker
Site Coordinates: N 40˚34'10.1" W 89˚38'41.6"
Your Clue: "Add together the numbers in the year this plaque was erected. Use the corresponding key to find the letter clue you need for the puzzle."
These informational sites along with 10 cache sites placed around Pekin will provide letters or numbers you'll need to unscramble a prominent name and important year in Pekin's history. Once you've unscrambled the name and year, submit your answer to be entered into a drawing for a one-of-a-kind, locally 3-D printed "flat" Everett, $50 in Chamber checks & some official Pekin swag!
Please be courteous and respectful of your surroundings! We hope you enjoy this historic tour of Pekin & participate in other events throughout 2024 to celebrate this milestone.
If you have any questions, please email us at pekinhistoricadventurequest@gmail.com.
A Bit of History...
Tazewell County Courthouse and Lincoln Courthouse Marker
The current Tazewell County Courthouse was built in 1914-1916. It replaced a somewhat smaller courthouse located on the same site, which stood from 1850 to 1914. Prior to 1850, Tremont was the county seat and the location of a domed Neo-Classical county courthouse. Before Tremont became the county seat in 1836, Pekin was briefly the de facto county seat, but there was not a specially-built courthouse structure in Pekin in the early 1830s. Tazewell County's original county seat was Mackinaw, where a log cabin was built in 1827 to serve as a courthouse -- but the place smelled like a pig pen because pigs would wallow under the building and would squeal when court was in session.
Abraham Lincoln lawyered in both the Tremont county courthouse as well as the new Pekin county courthouse that opened in 1850. Lincoln's time spent in the Tazewell County Courthouse is commemorated by a Lincoln County Courthouse Marker outside the entrance. The marker was placed in 1922 by the Daughters of the American Revolution as one of the historical markers along the route of the old Eighth Judicial Circuit which Abraham Lincoln would ride when he was an attorney in Illinois. It was rededicated in a ceremony on George Washington's Birthday, 21 Feb. 2022. It is traditional for new lawyers in Tazewell County to rub Lincoln's nose on the marker "for good luck" before entering the courthouse.
