Martinsville, Illinois

City: Martinsville

County: Clark

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 39.3333, -87.8667

Joseph Martin founded Martinsville after moving to Clark County in 1832. He purchased the land in 1833 and plotted a village along the National Road that attracted a small settlement. Martinsville received a U.S. Post Office in April 1834. The town became a permanent trading post and, due to its location, a popular thoroughfare with a public house and hotels. Martinsville was later incorporated as a city in June 1905.

William Henry Perrin, History of Crawford and Clark Counties, Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1833), 403, 410-11; James N. Adams, comp., Illinois Place Names (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society, 1989), 432.