Arthur, IL

Arthur sits on the Douglas-Moultrie county line in east-central Illinois, with Vine Street serving as the actual dividing line. The 2020 census counted 2,231 residents. The village grew after its 1872 rail connection and 1873 plat, but its strongest local identity comes from the Amish settlement that began arriving in the 1860s. The result is a town where a county boundary runs down Vine Street and the rural roads beyond town lead into one of Illinois's oldest Amish communities.

Arthur's downtown history is unusually easy to trace through Vine Street: stores, churches, a library, a park, and the old railroad all show up in the village's past. The local cheese tradition is part of Arthur's story, while the community building and school system keep the village's civic pieces close together. Drive a few minutes out and the scene changes to farms, horse-drawn buggies, and Amish businesses; come back to Vine Street and the two-county village is right there again too.