Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Otterville, IL

Otterville is an incorporated town in Otter Creek Township, Jersey County, Illinois, and it was incorporated on March 7, 1867.

Otterville is home to the Hamilton Primary School on Main Street, recognized as the first free integrated school in the United States.

In 1834, local physician Dr. Silas Hamilton left $4,000 for the construction and operation of a building for educational and religious purposes, and a stone-built, tuition-free school opened in 1836, drawing families to settle in the area.

George Washington, a man freed from slavery by Dr. Hamilton, studied at the Hamilton school, became successful, and established a perpetual scholarship fund for Americans of African descent.

The original Hamilton school was razed in 1872 and rebuilt and enlarged with the original stones at its base, classes were held there until 1971, and the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Otterville counted 223 residents in the 1880 census, its historical peak, but the 2020 census found just 87 people in the town.

In the 2000 census, Otterville's 120 residents lived in 41 households, an average of about 2.9 people per home.

Dr. John B. Hamilton, who served as Surgeon General of the United States from 1879 to 1891, was an Otterville native.

Otterville covers about 1.01 square miles of Jersey County, all of it land.