Kane County, Illinois

Kane County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Geneva
Year Organized: 1836
Square Miles: 521

Court House:

719 S Batavia Avenue
County Government Center
Geneva, IL 60134-3077

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Senator Elias K. Kane, first Secretary of State of Illinois.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Kane County was created on January 16, 1836 (Laws, 1836, p. 273) and was formed from unorganized land (La Salle County ) and Cook County. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: LaSalle County (1835–1836), Putnam County (1825–1835), Fulton County (1823–1825), Pike County (1821–1823), Clark County (1819–1821), Crawford County (1816–1819), Edwards County (1815–1816), Madison County (1812–1815), St. Clair County (1801–1812) and Knox, Northwest Territory (1790–1801).

The County was named for Elias Kent Kane, a pioneer lawyer, Territorial judge, prominent member of the Constitutional Convention of 1818, first Secretary of State of Illinois, and later United States Senator. The County Seat is Geneva (1836-Present).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 524 square miles (1,357 km²), of which, 520 square miles (1,348 km²) of it is land and 4 square miles (9 km²) of it (0.69%) is water. Its largest cities are situated along the Fox River.

Neighboring Counties:

North: McHenry County
East: Cook County
Southeast: DuPage County; Will County
South: Kendall County
West: DeKalb County

Cities and Towns:

- Aurora	city	Incorporated Area
- Barrington Hills	village	Incorporated Area
- Batavia	city	Incorporated Area
- Big Rock	village	Incorporated Area
- Blackberry	township
- Burlington	village	Incorporated Area
- Campton	township
- Carpentersville	village	Incorporated Area
- Dundee	township
- East Dundee	village	Incorporated Area
- Elburn	village	Incorporated Area
- Elgin	city	Incorporated Area
- Geneva (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Gilberts	village	Incorporated Area
- Hampshire	village	Incorporated Area
- Kaneville	township
- Lily Lake	village	Incorporated Area
- Maple Park	village	Incorporated Area
- North Aurora	village	Incorporated Area
- Pingree Grove	village	Incorporated Area
- Plato	township
- Sleepy Hollow	village	Incorporated Area
- South Elgin	village	Incorporated Area
- St. Charles	city	Incorporated Area
- Sugar Grove	village	Incorporated Area
- Virgil	village	Incorporated Area
- West Dundee	village	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."