Danville, Illinois

City: Danville

County: Vermilion

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 40.1167, -87.6167

Danville was the county seat of Vermilion County and was incorporated as a town in 1839, when Abraham Lincoln was in the Illinois General Assembly. From 1845 to 1861, Vermilion was on the Illinois Eighth Judicial Circuit on which Abraham Lincoln focused his law practice. Danville was the home of Ward Hill Lamon, a lawyer with whom Lincoln had an informal law partnership. In the 1850s, Lincoln and Lamon handled more than 150 cases together in Danville.

Lottie E. Jones, History of Vermilion County, Illinois (Chicago: Pioneer, 1911), 1:87-97, 165; Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org; An Act to Incorporate the Town of Danville; “Eighth Judicial Circuit, 1845-1861,” Maps, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Reference.aspx?ref=Reference%20html%20files/index%20for%20maps.html.