Settlement of the Richland County area began around 1815 when Thaddeus Morehouse a native of Vermont arrived by Conestoga wagon and built a log cabin along a stagecoach route that ran from Vincennes Indiana to St. Louis. This log cabin operated as a hotel and tavern . Richland County was organized as a county in 1841 when it was formed by a partitioning of Edwards County. There was some talk of naming the county Reed County after the Reverend Joseph Reed, an early Settler. Mr. Reed modestly declined that honor and suggested the name Richland County after the county in Ohio where he originally made his home. There was some controversy regarding the location of the county seat . In spite of the fact that the it was only a settlement and planned community Olney was determined the choice based on a donation of land and the central location.. The name of the town Olney was suggested by Judge Aaron Shaw who desired to honor a friend and Lawrenceville banker, Nathan Olney.. It was not until 1848 that Olney was incorporated as a village. For several years there was no county Courthouse. County Commissioners met in the cabin of Benjamin Bogard. The first court building was a log cabin which the county shared with the Methodist church.. In 1843 the county contracted to build a new courthouse. Once completed it was said to be the finest in this part of the state.. A newer courthouse was built in 1873 . An impressive building this courthouse burned in 1914 , the fire possibly caused by the spark from an Illinois Central engine landing in a pigeon or sparrow nest that occupied the cupola of the cupola of the courthouse. The present courthouse was built at a cost of $100,000 around 1916 .on the same site. The Civil War brought a great deal of turmoil to the County as there were sympathies for both sides. Lincoln and Douglas spoke at separate political rallies in Olney September 20, 1856. The Olney paper was said to be the first newspaper to endorse Lincoln. While most citizens rallied around the Union it was necessary to have troops stationed in Olney to enforce the draft as union deserters were found refuge among local citizens . It was reported that on one occasion the Sheriff of Jasper County along with a pose from Jasper and Crawford Counties were headed to Olney to free Union deserters held at the local jail but turned back when they learned that local citizens were guarding the jail.. The local paper was accused of Copperhead sympathies during the war and as a result, a group of Union soldiers home on leave wrecked the presses of the Olney Weekly Press. Overall however the county was pro Union and an estimated 1700 Richland County citizens fought for the Union in the Civil war. Nearly 1000 Olney residents served in World war I and during word War II Richland County may have been the only Illinois county outside of Cook that provided 4 generals for the war effort. The first census of Richland County was in 1850 at which time 4,012 people resided in the county. . One hundred years latter the 1950 census found Olney to be the population center of the United states

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