Wabash County Courthouse (Illinois)

The Wabash County Courthouse is a historic governmental building in downtown Mount Carmel, Illinois, United States. Built in the late nineteenth century as the fifth courthouse in Wabash County, it has experienced a series of extensive remodelling projects that have left it with virtually nothing of the original building.

When Edwards County was formed in 1814, Palmyra was named its first county seat; at the time, the county's boundaries embraced nearly half of the present-day state of Illinois, substantial parts of modern Wisconsin, and some parts of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as far north as the Canada–US border. Palmyra's tenure in this position was short-lived, as the growing population in the county's western portion sparked a county seat war in 1824: violence nearly erupted when the county seat was moved to Albion, but peace was restored when the two sides agreed to work together to convince the Illinois General Assembly to divide Edwards County into two separate counties. This goal was accomplished in December 1824, with Palmyra and other eastern parts of the county being placed within the boundaries of the new Wabash County. However, the law moved the county seat several miles away to Centerville, although within a few years the seat had again been moved, this time to Mount Carmel.

No purpose-built courthouse was ever built in Palmyra; throughout the years that it was the county seat, county officials rented the house of Gervase Hazleton, beginning with a rent of $8 but lowering their annual rent to just 6¼¢ for the entirety of the second year.

The second courthouse in the county, and the first after the county's creation, was built in Centerville in 1826. County commissioners contracted with miller Moses Bedell in September 1825 for the construction of a frame courthouse, two stories tall and measuring 26 by 36 feet (7.9 m × 11.0 m). After the courthouse was finished nine months later, Bedell was paid $715 for the project. As Centerville soon began to fall into oblivion, county officials decided in 1829 to move to the flourishing settlement of Mount Carmel, and the old courthouse was abandoned.

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