Following the Springfield Road

•September 3, 2025•

by Janet Roney

Of all the early trails that once crossed central Illinois, the origin of the Springfield Road that the Tom Lincoln’s family, including his 21-year-old son, Abe, followed to Decatur is known. The road was just four years old when the Lincolns used it, for it was surveyed and marked with a plowed furrow in 1826 by the state of Illinois to accommodate the increasing flow of emigrants going west to the popular Sangamon Country. Amos Williams, one of the founders of Edgar County, was the surveyor. A copy of the original survey made by Williams is in the archives of Edgar County.

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