It was a bicameral legislature, consisting of a House of Representatives of seven to nine men, elected by the adult free white male inhabitants, and a five-man Legislative Council, appointed by the president until 1809, and then elected by the people. The assembly employed a doorkeeper to unlock the place and see that it was swept and a fire going by nine o'clock. Each house employed a clerk to keep minutes and to engross copies of the laws. Marchal's house stood on the north corner of Second and Broadway streets. In 1809 there was no official session of the legislature, due to confusion caused by the separation off of the Illinois Territory.
Money seems to have been a problem.
There were just three dollars left in the treasury. The Marchal house was torn down about 1830. The legislature did not meet in 1812. Barnett had leased Col. John Small's tavern, which stood on the northwest side of First Street, between Main and Vigo streets. It served as Knox County's first court house from 1790 to 1794.