| The Eighth Circuit
was organized
March 21, 1839
, consisting of Champaign, DeWitt,
Livingston, Macon, Mason,
McLean, Menard, Sangamon, and Tazewell
Counties. Christian, Logan, Piatt, Shelby
and Woodford
Counties
were added to this Circuit in February, 1841.
In February 1843, Moultrie
County
was attached to the Eighth Circuit and Edgar and Vermillion in 1845.
In
1847, Livingston
County
was attached to the Ninth Circuit, and
Shelby
was attached to the Eighth making the Circuit consist of:
Champaign, Christian, DeWitt, Edgar, Logan,
Macon, McLean, Moultrie, Piatt, Shelby,
Tazewell, Vermillion, and
Woodford
Counties. This was the Eighth Circuit so famous in the history
of Abraham Lincoln.
By 1857, the
Eighth Circuit was reduced to
Champaign, DeWitt, Logan, McLean, Tazewell, and Vermillion
Countie. And, in 1861, the Circuit consisted of DeWitt, Logan, and
McLean
Counties, with the Circuit Judge receiving a salary of $1000 yearly.
In 1873, Ford and McLean
Counties were made the 14th Circuit; and in June of 1877, the Appellate Courts
were established, and the Circuit Courts were rearranged, with the
number of Circuits reduced from 28 to 13. The Eleventh Circuit consisted
of Ford, Iroquois,
Kankakee,
Livingston, and McLean
Counties. Each Circuit had three judges.
The Circuit
remained this way until 1897, when the 40th General Assembly passed:
"An Act to divide the State of Illinois, exclusive of the County
of Cook, into Judicial
Circuits."
Section
1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in
the General Assembly: That in lieu of the Circuit Courts provided by law
and now existing, the State of Illinois, exclusive of the County of
Cook, shall be and the same is hereby divided into judicial circuits as
follows…Eleventh Judicial Circuit-the Counties of McLean, Livingston,
Logan, Ford, and Woodford…"
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