Welcome

This county is adoptable.

See this webpage for more information if you are interested.

Contact: IlGenWeb State Coordinator

Our previous County Coordinator, Joe Markovich passed away June 2, 2023.
Joe was County Coordinator on behalf of many counties in:
Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, Montana, Nevada and Virginia state USGenweb projects.

Tazewell County was established in 1827 almost on the heels of Peoria County’s founding. It was Illinois’ 38th county – the 23rd county since statehood. At the time, Tazewell County was officially a part of Sangamon County, but was in fact under the governmental administration of Peoria County.

The original plan was to name the new county “Mackinaw,” after the tributary of the Illinois River that flowed through it (a Kickapoo chief named Mackinaw or Machina also lived with his people in Tazewell County in those years). However, one of the county’s prominent pioneers, Gideon H. Rupert (1799-1877), a Virginia native, intervened to have the proposed bill to establish the county amended, so the new county would instead be named for U.S. Senator Littleton W. Tazewell of Virginia. The first county seat was still named Mackinaw, though.

More can be learned in addition to the above from this website: https://fromthehistoryroom.wordpress.com/2018/03/02/the-founding-of-tazewell-county/

Also see this book History of Tazewell County (1905) Chicago: Munsell Publishing Company Publishers (in PDF format) includes some portraits.

Tazwell County Courthouse
Tazwell County Clerk
11 S. 4th Street, 2nd Fl.
Suite 203
(Recorders Suite 124)
Pekin, IL 61554
Phone: (309) 477-2264
Fax: (309) 477-2244
Email: JCAckerman@tazewell-il.gov
Website: County Clerk & Recorder