The first settler of Fulton County was Ossian Ross, who came to the site of Lewistown in 1821 to claim his land grant of one-quarter section in the Military Tract of Illinois. In 1822, the town site of Lewistown was laid out and named for Lewis, Mr. Ross’s eldest son. The first Court House of Fulton County was built in Lewistown from hewn logs in 1823. The first brick and stone courthouse was later erected in 1838 and served until December of 1894 when it was destroyed by fire. The current Fulton County Courthouse was built in 1897 to replace the earlier Courthouse destroyed by fire.

Camp Ellis was host to a number of training activities including medical, combat, quartermaster and engineering units. Shown to the left is a picture of a unit of the Engineer Corps working on constructing a pontoon bridge over Spoon River near Bernadotte.

Fulton County was the site of Camp Ellis, an 17,000 acre U.S. Army training facility, during World War II. World War II brought forth a great national effort in the United States. The Fulton County Villages of Table Grove and Ipava along with the unincorporated hamlet of Bernadotte were to be significantly impacted by the national mobilization efforts to wage and win a war. The Lewistown Project, the early code name for Camp Ellis, began with the taking and vacating of 17,800 acres of land stretching eastward and northward of Table Grove to Ipava on the east and Bernadotte on the northeast. Construction of the camp commenced on September 17, 1942. On April 15, 1943 Camp Ellis was officially turned over to its first Commanding Officer, Colonel Basil D. Spalding one month ahead of schedule. The official dedication of Camp Ellis was held on July 14, 1943 with over 50,000 visitors in attendance.