Western Migration Encouraged

The benefits and advantages of western land were sometimes exaggerated in the publications circulated in eastern states to encourage migration.

“[One will find] a more congenial climate, relief from misfortune, and retreat from agricultural indolence in the rich prairies of the West.”

— New Guide For Emigrants To The West by J.M Peck, 1836

A Journey of More Than Three Weeks

Prior to the completion of the Illinois & Michigan Canal in 1848, those who came west by boat traveled down the Ohio River, up the Mississippi to St. Louis, and finally up the Illinois River to Pekin, before traveling 40 miles overland to McLean County. This journey from the Northeast could take three or more weeks.

When the Illinois & Michigan Canal opened, it made it cheaper, easier, and faster for those traveling from New England and New York to get to McLean County. In addition, locks along the canal eliminated delays caused by low waters.

Where did the people who settled McLean County come from?

Native people made the area we now call McLean County their home for thousands of years. 

Evidence of the Mississippian culture in McLean County was witnessed by early white settlers. The Kickapoo people, forced from their ancestral lands, came to Central Illinois as early as the 1730s.

Shortly after Illinois became a state in 1818, the price of federal land was reduced and white settlers began to arrive in McLean County.

The first arrived in 1822. These individuals and families arrived mostly from the Upland South (Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee). As the population of McLean County grew, more began to arrive from the New England states.

The first Illinois Census took place in 1820, but most of these records were lost. The U.S. Census of 1850 provides the earliest information on where those who settled in McLean County originated.