These settlers were of old Yankee stock, descended from the English Puritans who had founded and settled New England in the 1600s.

A group of settlers from Pittsfield, Massachusetts headed west and settled this region of Illinois in 1820.

[4][5] As county seat, the town was one of the various places in central Illinois where Abraham Lincoln practiced law as part of the circuit court, working on 34 cases between 1839 and 1852.

Though agriculture in the region is no longer so dependent on pork, the town still hosts a yearly "Pig Days" festival.

The streak extended all the way through to the second game of the 1973 season, when Pittsfield dropped a 12-0 decision to Winchester, Illinois.

[9] Exactly 20 years later in 2011, the Saukees would return to the Illinois State basketball court and take home the 4th place title under Coach Brad Tomhave.

The dockets listing Lincoln's cases still remain, stored in ancient records in the courthouse basement.

Robert Franklin, a master mason from Nebo, Illinois designed and supervised the keystone architecture of the courthouse.

[14] The entrances are large, double doors of oak and glass and are overhung with beautiful stone porches.

From the center of the building rise the graceful outlines of the tower and dome to an imposing height of 136 feet.

The corridors, which cross under the dome are ten feet in width, with marbled tiled floors, wainscoting and frescoed ceilings.

Standing on the lower floor in the center of the corridor under the dome and looking upward, one may observe a beautiful concave of colored lights which spans the vault of the rotunda at a point near the top of the main building.

The building is stone (boated from Joliet on the Illinois river) and brick burned in Pittsfield.

The 200-acre (0.81 km2) lake is located within a 680-acre (2.8 km2) park that has become a prime recreational area offering boating, fishing, RV and primitive camping, hiking, disc golf, and other outdoor activities.

Pittsfield, along with the bulk of Pike County, is located in the land between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers as they move toward convergence in St. Louis.

Thus, the land around Pittsfield and Pike County is much more hilly and forested than the rest of the plains of central Illinois.

This geography, combined with a relative lack of heavy development, make the areas around Pittsfield particularly suited to wildlife.