 A final decision on the county seat was not reached until 1853, when a railroad, the predecessor of what was to become the Chicago & Alton, laid tracks through the county as part of a trunk line from Chicago to St. Louis.Railroad management selected a site along the tracks for development, and named the new town after the railroad's lawyer, Abraham Lincoln.On August 27, 1853, Mr. Lincoln arrived from Springfield and led a ceremony by the railroad tracks to mark the founding of the new town.