

Contact Us Box






Western Egyptian is a not for profit service organization which was chartered in
1965, with an eighteen member board of directors, serving Jackson, Monroe, Perry,
and Randolph Counties.
The board consists of public officials, low-
Western Egyptian provides
a range of services and activities which utilize all available resources to deal
with problems of the low income and disadvantaged residents.
MISSION OF THE AGENCY
To stimulate a better focusing of all available Local, State,
Private, and Federal Resources upon the goal of enabling low-
"OUR NAME"
According to John Allen’s book “Legends and Lore of Southern Illinois, there are
two different versions of how a
section of Southern Illinois became to be called “Egypt”.
One
version says the region was so named because of places bearing Egyptian names from
the valley of the Nile such as Cairo, Karnak, Thebes, Coshen, etc.
Another version
which seems to be the one more widely accepted is that the winter of 1830-
Snows came early reaching a depth of three feet or more, remained late in spring
of 1831 and severe frosts continued until May. Spring and summer were extremely cool
which delayed planting of crops. A September frost killed much of the un ripened
corn.
Only one section of the area which was in Franklin County produced a corn crop. Farmers
traveled to this place to get corn for their livestock, corn meal and other corn
products. Many of the farmers were Bible readers and remarked that the sons of Jacob
went to Pharaoh’s Egypt for corn and jokingly said that they too, were going to Egypt
for corn. Thus, the nickname “Egypt” came into use. No record of this term was found
prior to 1832 but once applied, it rapidly came into general use.
Western Egyptian
received it name from the organizing board in 1965 as the area is located to the
west of “Egypt”. Economic Opportunity Council is the result of the Economic Opportunity
Act of 1964.




Western Egyptian Economic Opportunity Council Inc.
"Serving the Jackson, Monroe, Perry, and Randolph Counties Since 1965"