Hartford, IL

Hartford is a village in Madison County, Illinois, on the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Missouri. The 2020 census counted 1,185 residents. Route 3 and three rail lines run through town, with St. Louis across the river and the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site within the village limits. The rivers, tracks, highways, and industrial sites make Hartford a transportation town even as its streets remain residential in places. The village’s location is the main local fact.

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Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1803–04 at Camp River DuBois, near the confluence, before beginning their western expedition. Hartford incorporated in 1920 after residents voted 55 to 2 to form a village. Earlier names included Edwardsville Crossing and South Wood River, and the first settlement grew around rail spurs, river landings, and roads to Wood River, Alton, and St. Louis. Hartford remains a small Illinois village where exploration history, freight routes, and the meeting of two rivers share the same ground.