Trenton, Illinois

City: Trenton

County: Clinton

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 38.6000, -89.6667

Located twenty-eight miles east of East St. Louis and eight miles west of Breese, Clinton, Illinois was founded as early as 1836. The U.S. Post Office Department established a post office at the location in February 1853. Alva Lewis laid out the village of Trenton in 1855, and the village grew as additions were made in 1856 and later. The first Catholics settled in Trenton around 1859, and the first schoolhouse was erected in 1879. The Ohio and Mississippi Railroad had a station in Trenton.

Commercial History of Clinton County and its Thriving Cities (East St. Louis, IL: East St. Louis Gazette, 1913), 78-79; History of Marion and Clinton Counties, Illinois (Philadelphia: Brink, McDonough, 1881), 33; Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 350.