Elizabethtown is a village in and the county seat of Hardin County, Illinois, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 220 at the 2020 census. It is the smallest county seat in the state.
History
thumb|left|upright=0.8|Elizabethtown was founded around the McFarland Tavern in 1812, which was soon rebuilt as the [[Rose Hotel (Elizabethtown, Illinois)|Rose Hotel. Until the 1960s when it closed as a hotel the Rose Hotel was the oldest continuously run hotel in the state of Illinois and now a state historic site.]]
One of the earliest settlers in the area of the future village of Elizabethtown was James McFarland who arrived around 1809. The village was later founded around the McFarland Tavern built in 1812. The tavern later became the site of the Rose Hotel named after the owner Sarah Rose. Up until the 1960s when it closed as a hotel the Rose Hotel was the oldest continuously run hotel in the state of Illinois and is now a state historic site. Elizabethtown was named after James McFarland's wife. The First Baptist Church located in Elizabethtown, is the oldest Baptist church congregation in Illinois and the oldest known Protestant church in Illinois, founded in 1806.
Elizabethtown is referred to as "Etown" by the local population as the nickname is preserved in the name of the downtown E'town River Restaurant.
Geography
Elizabethtown is located in southern Hardin County. It is bordered to the south by the Ohio River, which forms the state boundary with Kentucky.
Illinois Route 146 passes through the village, leading southwest (downriver) to Golconda and east to Illinois Route 1 north of Cave-In-Rock. Rosiclare, the only city in Hardin County, is reached by traveling west on IL-146 then south on IL-34.
According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Elizabethtown has a total area of , of which (or 99.30%) is land and (or 0.70%) is water.
Demographics
As of the 2020 census