Welcome to Lewistown!

Lewistown is the Proud home of Dickson Mounds Museum! We are known for our rich historical background as well as the Historic Oak Hill Cemetery made famous by Edgar Lee Masters, author of Spoon River Anthology. We invite you to visit our Community, one of the stops along the well known Spoon River Scenic Drive, and a proud Portal Community along the Illinois River Road National Scenic Byway.

Enjoy a little bit of History about our town…. Founded by Ossian Ross in 1823, named for his son Lewis, is the oldest city in Fulton County and it is County seat. Fulton County once extended all the way north to include Chicago. For Chicagoans between 1823 and 1825, obtaining a marriage license meant a lengthy journey south to Lewistown’s log courthouse. Today’s courthouse is a prominent landmark on Main Street, facing the elegant 1st Presbyterian Church (circa. 1854). East of Main Street and running parallel is Broadway, home to many of Lewistown’s stately older homes and to St. James Episcopal Church, considered to be one of the finest examples of pure gothic architecture in America. Author Edgar Lee Masters set his Spoon River Anthology in Oak Hill Cemetery, which is on Main Street, north of the center of town. As a young man, Masters lived on Main Street in a home that still stands across from the grocery store. A later family home can be seen on Adams Street west of Main. Two pillars, between which Abraham Lincoln once gave a speech, were relocated from an older version of the courthouse to become a prominent landmark in Oak Hill Cemetery. Just north of the cemetery on the opposite side of main Street is a modest brick home where Lincoln visited his friend Major Newton Walker on several occasions. Lewistown has walking and biking opportunities, with parking in the north end of the cemetery and walking throughout. Bicyclists will find parking and a marked route leaving from the MidAmerica Bank parking lot on Main Street, extending into the quiet countryside west of town. For the traveler, Lewistown offers a newly opened visitors center, restaurants, motel, gasoline, convenience stores, grocery store, laundromat, ATM banking, and auto repair services.