In 1831 Lincoln removed to the village of New Salem, Illinois, which lay downstream on the Sangamon River. The young man quickly proved a popular addition to the small hamlet, which hoped to use its riverside location to become a local commercial and trading center.

 

In this period new settlers poured into the central Illinois prairie. The state's original settlers, who had arrived in Illinois from the South and mid-Atlantic states via the Ohio and Mississippi River, had occupied its lush southern river bottoms.

 

But now towns like New Salem sprung up on the prairie as a part of an Illinois land boom. Land speculators snapped up large acreages at federal land auctions, then resold them to potential settlers in the east. Some even mapped out entire towns in hopes of attracting settlers.

 

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