In 1824 Cornelius Vandeventer, a native of Ohio, became the first permanent settler in this area, and additional pioneers arrived over the next few years from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. In 1829 Alexander Curry purchased a claim on the site of the future Mt. Sterling, and Curry and his family laid out the town in 1834, when this area formed the southern part of Schuyler County. Two years later, attempts to move the county seat from Rushville to a location nearer the center of the county failed, and Brown County, named after General Jacob Brown, a veteran of the War of 1812, was created on February 1, 1839, with Mt. Sterling named county seat that same year. Beginning in 1849, with the discovery of gold in California, the town stood on a major route of western migration. James Washington Singleton came from Virginia around 1834 and lived in Mt. Sterling until 1854, when he moved to Quincy; a doctor, lawyer, and later railroad executive, he became a brigadier general in the Illinois militia, served in the Mormon War of 1844, was a delegate to two Illinois State Constitutional Conventions, a member of the Illinois Legislature, and a member of the U.S. Congress. Stephen A. Douglas held court in Mt. Sterling in 1841-1843, and circuit court judge Abraham Lincoln spoke here on October 19, 1858, while campaigning for the office of U.S. Senator.