Editor’s Note: Students enrolled in Western Illinois University Professor Greg Hall’s Illinois history seminar during the Fall 2025 semester each wrote 700-word summaries of their research papers about McDonough County history, and Dr. Hall generously provided these summaries to The Community News Brief. We will be publishing these over the next few months as part of McDonough County’s Bicentennial celebration coverage. We greatly appreciate Dr. Hall and his students for contributing to our historical retrospectives.
The Era of the Great Depression is well known for the intensity of the economic crisis that was faced throughout the entire country. While McDonough County was not alone in how it suffered through this time, the story of its perseverance is still unique in many ways. The focus of this paper will be on the county and the divisions within it.
That is, the division between the rural sections and the townships, primarily Macomb.
McDonough County was unique within the country because of its rapid and lasting community response - to the point where it was recognized by the United States Board of Commerce. While its story might be marked with occasional internal friction, the resilience of the community is remarkable.
The struggle of McDonough County’s residents is best seen through two lenses.
