Column: Champaign County’s fragile link to the American Revolution – Champaign News-Gazette

"Two hundred and fifty years ago, when the Revolutionary War was in its early stages and the Declaration of Independence was being drafted, debated and adopted, Champaign County did not exist. Nor did Illinois. And, according to historians, it would be almost 50 years before a White man settled in this land of tallgrass prairie and swampy woods. ... And yet the county has a tenuous link, perhaps two, to the American Revolution."