Choosing the County Seat, Part 3

•September 23, 2026•

by Janey Roney

Last week, I left you wondering why after two years of wrangling, voters chose Asa’s Point (the future Sullivan) as their new county seat in 1845 instead of the well-established East Nelson village. Asa’s Point, a point of timber south of the center of the new county, was uninhabited possibly because it was too close to the mosquito and rattlesnake infested swamp and two-mile long lake known as Eagle Pond to be a healthy home. East Nelson was on the south bluff of the Kaskaskia above Nelson Ford where three main trails crossed the river since the beginning of time and connected it to the Mississippi and Wabash Rivers as well as Lake Michigan.

    Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.