Timeline of Vermilion County, Illinois history

1800s

1818 December 3 – Illinois is admitted to the Union.
1819 November – Salt Springs becomes the first European settlement in what is to become Vermilion County.

1826 January 18 – Vermilion County is created.
1826 March – The county is divided into two townships, Carroll in the south and Ripley in the north.
1826 – James Haworth plats the town of Georgetown.
1827 January – The Salt Works, on the Salt River the west of the mouth of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River, is the first settlement. Lottie Jones VC History
1827 January 31 – The future site of Danville is identified as the new county seat.
1827 April 10 – Lots in the new town of Danville go on sale.
1827 May – Post office at Danville opens in the home of Amos Williams.
1828 – Post office at Georgetown opens.

1833 – Champaign County is founded to the west, taking a strip ten miles wide from the west side of Vermilion County.
1833 – Iroquois County is founded to the north, and Vermilion County is extended by 6 miles on the north side.
1835 – Daniel Beckwith (after whom Danville was named) dies of pneumonia following a horseback ride from Washington.
1837 – The town of Franklin is founded near the future site of Bismarck, but only lasts a few years.
1838 September 17–20 – The Potawatomi Trail of Death camps at Sandusky Point near what became the town of Catlin.
1839 – Post office at the future site of Rossville opens.

1851 – Vermilion County is divided into eight townships: Danville, Georgetown, Elwood, Carroll, Ross, Middlefork, Newell (first called Richland), and Pilot.
1851 – B. E. Conkey founds Conkeytown.
1856 – Blount Township is created.
1857 – Mann's Chapel is constructed south of the future site of Rossville.
1858 – Catlin Township is created.
1858 – Abraham Lincoln gives a speech in Danville at the home of Dr. William Fithian (now the Vermilion County Museum) while campaigning for U.S. Senator against Stephen A. Douglas.
1859 – Ford County is created from an unorganized territory that had been attached to Vermilion County.

1870 September – Danville High School is established.
1871 – The town of Hoopeston is founded.
1872 – Construction on the Pumpkin Vine Railroad begins, to carry coal from south of Covington, Indiana to the Bismarck area.
1872 – The town of Gilbert is founded south of the future site of Alvin.
c. 1873 – The town of Bismarck is founded.
1873 – William P. and E. A. West lay out the town of Westville.
1875 – The town of Alvin is founded at a new railroad intersection just north of Gilbert, supplanting the earlier town.

1894 – The Danville Training School for Nurses (later Lakeview College of Nursing) opens.
1897 – An Old Soldiers' Home is established on the southeast side of Danville.
1899 – Jamaica Township is created.