The Hancock County Historical Society was founded for the purpose of preserving the memory of incidents which have taken place in Hancock County and surrounding areas as well as the memories of people who have turned this once untamed area into a fertile, productive, versatile county. Because people make history we have also become involved with genealogy.

The Society was founded by Robert Cochran in 1968. He, with the help of the Hancock County Board of Supervisors, had chaired the publication of the "1968 History of Hanocck County". Material continued to come in long after the book had gone to press and Mr. Cochran felt the need to preserve that information so he suggested the society. The first Hancock County Historical Society meeting was held in November of 1968. That meeting was announced by our first quarterly newsletter which was, and continues to be, historically oriented. About 250 newsletters are mailed to our members each quarter, with more than half the letters going out of state.

The Hancock County Historical Society is free of charge and open to the public from Monday thru Friday's, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm and provides a trained volunteer to assist those wishing to search for either historical or genealogical information. Copies of information can be made at a purchase of $.25 per copy. The Society answers hundreds of letters annually for which a nominal fee of $8.00 per hour is charged for the search of information; this charge covers the cost of copies, mailing and assists in keeping the equipment in operation.

The Society has an index file with approximately 350,000 entries, dozens of scrap books, scores of rolls of microfilm of newspapers from Carthage, Hamilton, LaHarpe and other surrounding villages in our area. We have thousands of old newspapers, bound by year, in book form which date back to 1854.

The Society extends an open invitation to any and all to come visit our office, see what we have to offer and if you wish become a member for $10.00 per year which will entitle you to receive our quarterly, informative newsletter (please see the memembership link for the proper form).

Any questions: please call us at 217/357-0043;
write us at 306 Walnut Street, Carthage, Illinois,62321
email us at hancockhistory@yahoo.com;
or better yet- come visit and be amazed at 306 Walnut Street,
Carthage, Illinois (behind the OLD Carthage jail).

This page maintained by: Hancock County Historical Society - (hancockhistory@yahoo.com)