About the Stark County Illinois Historical Society
The Stark County Illinois Historical Society (SCIHS) is a nonprofit whose stated purpose is to display, collect and preserve items related to the history of Illinois in general and Stark County in particular, to maintain a museum and library, and to spread knowledge of both. It describes its focus as the county's people, organizations, churches, businesses and farming community. The society does not publish a founding date on its website, so none is given here. Its museum complex sits at 318 West Jefferson Street in Toulon, the county seat, and is made up of three buildings.
The oldest is the office of Dr. Thomas Hall, built in 1848 in the Greek Revival style with pillars under its portico. The society believes it is the first free-standing doctor's office in Illinois. The Historic American Buildings Survey documented the building in 1933, and that record is on file at the Library of Congress; the office was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2025. Inside, Dr. Hall's instruments, medicines and records remain where he left them. (An earlier version of this page gave the construction date as 1847; the society's own site says 1848.)
Next door is the McKeighan Victorian house, built in 1900 by Sylvester and Effie McKeighan, who moved in with their three daughters in 1901. Upstairs displays include a Civil War collection, a reminder that both Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas spoke in Toulon late in their 1858 Senate campaign. The third building is the agricultural building, where the society's collection of items brought by Stark County pioneers sits alongside farm equipment used between 1829 and 1900, all of it powered, as the society puts it, by one adult, one child or one horse.
Collections and Research Services
The society's library and object collections are seen on tours rather than in a reading room. For family research, the separate Stark County Genealogical Society is the better first stop: its office at 115 South Franklin Street in Toulon is open Tuesdays 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and Saturdays 10:00 a.m. to noon with no appointment needed, though volunteers appreciate advance notice so they can pull material. The historical society's website links to that office and lists starkcogene@yahoo.com as a contact. Toulon-area records from the 1850 through 1930 censuses and county land and probate files are also available through the free sources in our guide to free family history research, and our article on finding where someone is buried covers the cemetery indexes that rural Illinois societies rely on.
Planning Your Visit
The museum complex is open Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. On scheduled "opening" days several docents are stationed through the buildings; outside those hours, call or text (309) 214-8435 to arrange a private tour led by one or two volunteers, and leave a message if nobody answers. Check the society's website for its 2026 opening dates and meeting schedule before driving out. Mail goes to PO Box 524, Toulon, IL 61483. About 40 miles southwest, the Warren County History Museum in Monmouth covers a neighboring stretch of the Illinois prairie.
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