Since there is little published about the village of Pittsburg, Illinois other than historical notations, we were pleased when Jane Whitehead, granddaughter of James T. Fowler, approached us with a couple of Justice of the Peace Docket books to copy. Fowler resided over local city skirmishes in Pittsburg while serving as Justice of the Peace of the village for at least a couple of decades. Most of the cases involved assault, theft, bad debts, public drunkenness or domestic abuse. Included along with the Justice of the Peace dockets were entries of Chattel Mortgages where those looking to borrow money from someone would officially establish collateral for the loan, usually in the form of livestock or personal property.
 

The books printed from these documents are now available for perusal at the Williamson County Historical Society. They are divided as follows:

Justice of the Peace Docket Book 1, 1912-1931 and Chattel Mortgages, 1917-1924

Justice of the Peace Docket Book 2, 1925-1935 and Chattel Mortgages, 1925-1936

Miscellaneous Justice of the Peace Documents, 1927-1934

The indexes to these new books has been added to the Master Misc. County Records Index