Early Saline County Court Records, Chancery, Jan. 1845 - Dec. 1863 Compiled By: Mary Douglas Brimm and Rebecca Schmook Special File--- William H. Dove vs Moses P. McGehee This file contains a typed copy of the Bill of Complaint and Injunction and Poll Books from the movement to decide the location of the county seat of Saline County between 1857-1860. Initially, from the results of an election held in 1857, Harrisburg received the majority of votes and was established as the county seat. The original county seat had been located at Raleigh, IL, between 1847-1857. Charges of fraud and illegal voting during the election of 1857 cast a shadow upon the results of that election. Many people believed that Raleigh had received more legal votes for county seat than had Harrisburg. Among these believers were most of the current county officials named within the suit of William H. Dove. They had rumored that they were going to move their offices back to Raleigh where they truly believed the county seat should be. Upon hearing said rumor, William H. Dove obtained an Injunction restraining the county officials from removing their offices from the town of Harrisburg. Poll Books were from the election of 1857, which election established that the county seat of Saline county was to be located at Harrisburg. An attempt was made (mainly because of the closeness of said election -- Harrisburg receiving 725 and Raleigh 689 votes) to discern illegal voting by eliminating those who voted from nearby Hamilton County and those persons who were known to be under voting age. Thus, notes are written alongside some of the names listed in the poll books (my note: i.e. county of residence, if other than Saline, and/or, noted as being a minor, if that was the case). It must be remembered that there was a boundary change in the North Boundary of Saline county which separates it from Hamilton in 1855. The New county line was five miles south of the old boundary. Some ofthe settlers might have thought they were living in Saline county, but in actuality were citizens of Hamilton county. Their error in voting in the election to determine the Saline county seat was, in most cases, an honest mistake. Those persons voting twice and those who were under voting age (if that could be proven) were obviously guilty of fraudulent conduct. However, it was impossible to establish how many illegal votes were cast during this election, and the returns stood as final, retaining Harrisburg as the county seat of Saline county. Rebecca Schmook Feb. 1993 -------------------- So from 1847 to 1855, Saline County was 5 miles farther to the North into Hamilton Co., which means before 1847, that part of Gallatin was also 5 miles father North into Hamilton. I don't know about Gallatin's present day North Boundary.... Best Regards, Trev