PREFACE

This booklet has been prepared by the Carrollton Business and Professional Women's Club to commemorate Carrolton's Sesquicentennial. Obviously, we could not hope to compile a complete history of Carrollton in a matter of 30 days and as many pages, and so have designed an ALBUM OF TODAY AND YESTERDAY, using pictures and articles available to us.

On our cover you see the monument erected in honor of our founder, Thomas Carlin, who was born near Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1786. In 1803, the family moved to Missouri, which was then Spanish territory. His father died there and Thomas came to Illinois and served as a Ranger in the War of 1812. Following the war he operated a ferry for four years opposite the mouth of the Missouri River, where he was married. In 1818, he located on land which now forms a part of the City of Carrollton.

In 1821, Greene County was created by an act of the legislature in session at Vandalia and Mr. Carlin, Thomas Rattan, John Alien, John Green and John Huitt, Sr. were appointed.commissioners to locate the the county seat. After a short meeting at the home of Isaac Pruitt, the commissioners mounted their horses and rode east to a promising location on land owned by Mr. Carlin. History has it that the group halted at a point later identified as being on the east side of the present public square in Carrollton and that John Alien paced about 50 yards to the west, drove a stake, and announced: "Here let the Courthouse be built." The town was named Carrollton after Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. This was on February 20th, 1821.

At the first election in April, 1821, Mr. Carlin was elected sheriff. In 1824, he was chosen as state senator and served four terms. During the Black Hawk War he commanded a spy battallion. He was chosen Governor in 1838 and served four years. He died at his home in Carrollton, February 14, 1852.

The dedication of the monument to Thomas Carlin, located in the Southeast corner of the Courthouse park and erected by the State of Illinois in honor of his being its 6th Governor, took place on July 4, 1917. The program at the unveiling was as follows:

Music, Band.

Invocation, Rev. C. S. Boyd.

Song, Duncan Sisters' Quartet

Unveiling of Statue, Mrs. Ada Schafer-Smith.

Address - "The Monument," Victor S. Holms.

Introduction of the Governor, Judge Norman Jones.

Address, Governor Frank 0. Lowden.

Song, Duncan Sisters' Quartet.

Music, Band.

HERITAGE

Once upon a time, the story goes,
This land was new, the soil untried.
On these acres, vast, untamed, Men and women toiled on side by side.
Farmhouses were slowly built, And bits of land fenced in;
And women cooked and passed the food To the weary toiling men.
Livestock was made captive, The sod was turned, the soil made free,
And winters came with snow and cold, And toil went on unceasingly.
And from these years of endless toil,
There blossomed forth in history's page
The dreams of sturdy pioneers— The story of our heritage.