By Jared L. Olar
Local History Program Coordinator
Here at “From the History Room” we have recalled the story of the founding of Tazewell County in Illinois several times. Despite some confusion about Tazewell County’s naming that is found in the first published history of the county in 1879, it has been established that our county was named in honor of a Virginia politician named Littleton Waller Tazewell (1774-1860).
As we’ve stated previously, originally the plan in the fall of 1826 was to erect a new county named “Mackinaw County,” with its county seat at Mackinaw – toponyms of a Native American origin, named for the Mackinaw River. However, one of Tazewell County’s prominent early settlers, Gideon Henkel Rupert (1799-1877) of Virginia, lobbied to have the proposed county in which he would live instead named after Littleton W. Tazewell, who was then serving in Congress as one of the two U.S. Senators for Rupert’s home state, and would go on to serve as Governor of Virginia.
As a result of Rupert’s lobbying, when the bill to create “Mackinaw” County reached its third and final reading in the Illinois House of Representatives in early January of 1827, the county’s proposed name in the bill was changed from “Mackinaw” to “Tazewell,” and so when the bill when to the Illinois Senate it bore the title “An Act Creating Tazewell County.” The county seat, however, was still fixed at Mackinaw, which was near the geographical center of the proposed county – the Illinois General Assembly in those days preferred to place county seats near a county’s center, since that was thought to be politically fair to all the county’s residents (never mind that the county seat might be very difficult to reach due to the nearly non-existent roads in Illinois’ pioneer days).
Upon learning the story of our county’s naming, John Ackerman, who currently serves as Tazewell County Clerk and Recorder of Deeds, took an interest in helping county residents learn the story too. To that end, as he explained in an April 19 press release, he decided last year to find out if there were any other communities or municipal bodies in the United States that were named “Tazewell.” Ackerman found that Tazewell County, Illinois, is one of only four “Tazewells” in America.
Then late last year, he set out to visit America’s three other “Tazewells” – Tazewell County, Virginia, the Town of Tazewell, Virginia, and the Town of Tazewell, Tennessee – with the hope of establishing Twin Community Status with them. In March this year, the Tazewell County Board passed a resolution establishing Twin Community Status with the Town of Tazewell, Virginia. Then in May, the county board approved a Twin Community Status resolution with the Town of Tazewell, Tennessee. Ackerman has also reached out to Tazewell County, Virginia, but that outreach has not yet borne fruit.
The three other Tazewells were named not for Littleton W. Tazewell, but for Littleton’s father Henry Tazewell (1754-1799), who like his son was a prominent Virginia politician who, among several other offices, served as a U.S. Senator for Virginia. Henry Tazewell was also a Revolutionary War Patriot, serving as a captain of cavalry during the war.
Ackerman included the following biographical sketches of Henry Tazewell and his son Littleton W. Tazewell in the 2023 Tazewell County Yearbook, page 10, along with reproductions of their painted portraits:
Henry Tazewell
(November 27, 1753 – January 24, 1799)
Born: Brunswick County, Virginia
Graduate: College of William & Mary – 1770
Married: Dorothea Elizabeth Waller – 1774
Children: One son and one daughter
Captain of Cavalry – American Revolutionary War
Delegate Fourth Virginia State Convention – 1775
Delegate Fifth Virginia State Convention – 1776
Virginia General Assembly – 1778-1785
Virginia Supreme Court – 1785-1793
Chief Judge Virginia Supreme Court – 1789-1793
United States Senate – 1794-1799
President Pro Tempore United States Senate – 1795
Littleton Waller Tazewell
(December 17, 1774 – May 6, 1860)
Born: Williamsburg, Virginia
Graduate: College of William & Mary – 1791
Married: Ann Stratton Nivison – 1785
Children – Two sons and six daughters
Virginia General Assembly – 1798-1800
United States Representative – 1800-1801
Virginia General Assembly – 1804-1806, 1809-1812, 1816-1817
United States Senate – 1824-1832
President Pro Tempore United States Senate – 1832
Virginia Constitutional Convention – 1829-1830
Governor of Virginia – 1834-1836
The memorialize the namesake of Tazewell County, Illinois, Ackerman obtained two new copies of a portrait of Littleton Waller Tazewell to be displayed in Pekin’s historic downtown.
One of them, as he announced in his April 19 press release, is now on display in the McKenzie Building outside the Tazewell County Clerk’s Office. It’s the only portrait of Littleton W. Tazewell in the McKenzie Building. In Aug. 1968, the Tazewell County Board placed a different portrait of Littleton Tazewell on the first floor of the Tazewell County Courthouse, and that portrait still hangs outside Courtroom 104.
The second, much larger, portrait provided by Ackerman was put on display in the Tazewell County Courthouse in early May. Both of these canvas portraits were obtained by the Tazewell County Clerk’s Office from the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, and both were donated to the county by Ackerman and his wife Maria.
Ackerman says his purpose in donating the new portraits is to increase local awareness of Littleton W. Tazewell, whose 250th Birthday will be celebrated in Dec. 2024, toward the end of Pekin’s Bicentennial Year.
“Littleton Tazewell was raised observing his father’s (Henry Tazewell) commitment to serving his community, first as a commander in the American Revolutionary War, then as a Founding Father of the State of Virginia, a state legislator, then as one of Virginia’s first Supreme Court Justices, and finally as a U.S. Senator,” Ackerman said. “Following his father’s example, Littleton Tazewell dedicated his life to public service. We should be extremely proud of the great history we have here in Tazewell County, including the gentleman we are named after.”
