Live Here

Welcome to Fulton County

Fulton County offers a unique blend of great schools, excellent healthcare, outstanding parks, a lower cost of living and relaxed lifestyles―all within rolling rural hills, rivers and valleys in the heart of West Central Illinois. And, Fulton County is just a short distance from Peoria, Illinois, offering all the amenities of a large metropolitan area. It’s a perfect place to live, work and play!

Communities

During the early years of settlement, Fulton County residents concentrated in many locations around the county.  Since that time, many of these places have faded away leaving little or no trace on the landscape, surviving only in the annals of our history.  The following towns survive today.

• Astoria was laid out in 1836 as a small village called Washington.  It was relocated and platted as Vienna in 1837, but that name was already taken; so, it was renamed Astoria by a special charter in 1839.  The new name was chosen to honor John Jacob Astor, the renowned fur trader and millionaire, who, it is said, owned a quarter section of land on or near where Astoria now lies.
• Avon began when Ira Woods and several other Woods families settled here.  Between 1835 and 1843 the settlement was called Woodsville.  Over the next few years other families from the eastern states, Indiana, Kentucky, the British Isles, and France settled here also.  Due to confusion with other area towns, Woodsville was changed to Woodstock, and then later to Avon.
• Banner, founded in 1832 as Utica, the name was later changed to Banner to avoid confusion with the community of Utica in LaSalle County.  Located along Copperas Creek, Banner was home to saw mills, grist mills, and a collection of shops.
• Bernadotte is nestled on the banks of the Spoon River in the middle of Fulton County.  Bernadotte is a favorite stop on the Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive.
• Bryant  The village was founded in 1863.  By the late 1860s, Bryant, with its dry goods, furniture, and other stores, was thriving amide the nearby sawmills and coal mines.
• Canton Established in 1825 by Isaac Swan and Nathaniel Jones, Canton is now the largest community in Fulton County.  Canton became a booming place with groceries, distilleries, woolen mills, brick yards, pork packing and cigar makers.  The Parlin & Orendorff Plow Works, established in 1860, became the largest plow manufacturing plant in the world by 1919, when it was purchased by International Harvester Company.
• Cuba was formerly two towns, Centerville and Middleton, both founded in the middle 1830s.  They merged in 1852.  The name Cuba appears to have been meant to reflect the degree to which it, like its Caribbean namesake, seemed an island surrounded by water.
• Dunfermline Incorporated in 1947- this small town was named for the home of Andrew Carnegie in Scotland.  In keeping with its Scottish name, Dunfermline’s early inhabitants were immigrant miners mostly from Scotland, England, and Wales.
• Ellisville In 1828, Levi Ellis began building a log cabin and flour mill here along Spoon River.  Although the town never had a large population, it became a center of activity. The legacy of its more prosperous past is kept alive through the efforts of its citizens who have established the Historic Ellisville Restoration Organization.
• Fairview  By 1837, several families from New Jersey had settled.  In 1838, the Fairview Academy was constructed, serving as a church and school.  Located at the corner of Main and Market Streets, this was the first member church of the Reformed Church of America (est.1628) to be constructed wast of the Alleghenies.
• Farmington dates to 1834, when intersecting stage coach lines supported hotels and other businesses opening later in the decade.  By 1900 the business district on Fort Street was well established.  Much of it remains today, along with the attractive older homes that belonged to local merchants who built and maintained the downtown over the years.
• Ipava With its annual Camp Ellis Days celebration, Ipava remembers its role as home to Camp Ellis, a WWII training and POW camp that stretched east from Ipava nearly to Table Grove.  Visitors to Ipava can obtain a driving tour brochure and view and exhibit about Camp Ellis at the Easley Pioneer Museum and restored Freeman School.
• Lewistown Founded by Ossian Ross in 1823, named for his son Lewis, is the oldest city in Fulton County and its County seat. East of Main Street and running parallel is Broadway, home to many of Lewistown’s stately older homes and to St. James Episcopal church, considered to be one of the finest examples of pure gothic architecture in America.
• Liverpool Formerly the site of a 2000 year old Indian village and burial mound group, the Village of Liverpool was founded in 1836.  As the railroads captured a larger share of what had once been river commerce, Liverpool’s importance diminished.  However, a thriving fishing and hunting industry provided several decades of relative prosperity.
• London Mills In 1846, James Eggers built a grist mill just below the entry of Spoon River into Fulton County.  The mill was called “London” in honor of the English city which was his original home.  The arrival of the railroads and construction of a bridge across the Spoon River contributed to its prosperity in 1850s.
• Norris Named for pioneer settler William Norris, this small town is just north of Canton.  Thought by some to be the “dining capital” of Fulton County, Norris , a village of only about 195 residents, boasts two restaurants. 
• Smithfield is home to the Red Brick School, a very popular stop during the Scenic Drive Fall Festival for its famous “chicken n’noodles.”  After the school closed, the building was purchased by Cass Township and transformed into a community center.  It now houses the spectacularly lifelike wood carvings of Bill Swango’s Wildlife Art Gallery.
• St. David boasts a truly international pedigree.  As mining boomed in this part of Fulton County, thought to be one of the richest sources of coal in Illinois, immigrant miners arrived from Wales, England, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, and other counties as well.  The tow was named for St. David, the patron saint of Wales.
• Table Grove Sitting higher than its surroundings the aptly named Table Grove offers an occasional overview of the nearby countryside.  Table Grove lies near the western end of what was once the WWII era Camp Ellis.  An 1869 Table Grove Community Church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Vermont Known for its unique collection of stately historic homes, Vermont boasts 15 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  In an uncommon honor, its whole central business district is also listed.