Jonesboro, IL

Jonesboro is the Union County seat in southern Illinois, a city established in 1800 and incorporated in 1818. Its defining historic date is September 15, 1858, when Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held the third of their seven debates in a grove north of the square. Lincoln Memorial Park now marks the site with life-size bronze figures, a wayside exhibit, and a limestone memorial. The city also shares its everyday name with neighboring Anna in the familiar Anna-Jonesboro pairing. Jonesboro is a courthouse-and-crossroads town whose strongest landmark is the moment national politics stopped in a local grove.