11/11/2026
CARMI, ILLINOIS — A TOWN NAMED IN A LOG HOUSE
Images are for illustration only and are not actual photos.
Before Carmi had familiar storefronts and busy streets, its future was being discussed inside a log house.
In early 1816, commissioners selected Carmi as the seat of newly created White County. Illinois was still a territory, and the settlement beside the Little Wabash River was only beginning to take shape.
According to Carmi’s 1966 sesquicentennial history, local leaders gathered at John Craw’s log house on April 16, 1816, and chose the town’s name.
They selected “Carmi,” a name found in the Bible.
That same house served another purpose: court was held there before the county had a courthouse of its own. A home became a place where the community conducted public business.
The river settlement soon gained the beginnings of a town economy. A store opened and a ferry was established in 1816. By December, county officials were seeking bids for a two-story brick courthouse.
These were practical steps toward building a lasting community: a crossing, a place to buy supplies, and a center for county government.
John Craw’s house gained another chapter in 1835, when U.S. Senator John M. Robinson purchased it. Later occupied by his daughter and granddaughter, it became known as the Robinson-Stewart House.
Carmi’s beginnings remind us how much history can fit inside an ordinary home—and how a town can grow around decisions made in one room.
What place comes to mind first when you think of old Carmi?
