Kankakee County, Illinois

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

County Seat: Kankakee
Year Organized: 1853
Square Miles: 678

Court House:

189 E. Court Street, 5th Floor
County Courthouse
Kankakee, IL 60901-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Native American tribe.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Kankakee County was created on February 11, 1853 (Laws, 1853, p. 159) and was formed from Ford, Iroquois and Will Counties. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Will County (1836–1853), Iroquois County (1833–1853), Vermilion County (1826–1835), Edgar County (1823–1825), Fulton County (1823–1825), Clark County (1819–1823), 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 an Indian name given to a river rising in northern Indiana and flowing 225 miles southwest to join the Des Plaines River and form the Illinois River in northeast Illinois. The name of the river was transferred to the county. The County Seat is Kankakee (Name changed from Kankakee Depot in 1855.) .

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 681 square miles (1,765 km²), of which, 677 square miles (1,753 km²) of it is land and 5 square miles (12 km²) of it (0.69%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Lake County, Ind.
Southeast: Newton County, Ind.
South: Iroquois County
Southwest: Ford County; Livingston County
Northwest: Grundy County; Will County

Cities and Towns:

- Aroma	township
- Aroma Park	village	Incorporated Area
- Bonfield	village	Incorporated Area
- Bourbonnais	village	Incorporated Area
- Bradley	village	Incorporated Area
- Buckingham	village	Incorporated Area
- Essex	village	Incorporated Area
- Ganeer	township
- Grant Park	village	Incorporated Area
- Herscher	village	Incorporated Area
- Hopkins Park	village	Incorporated Area
- Irwin	village	Incorporated Area
- Kankakee (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Limestone	township
- Manteno	village	Incorporated Area
- Momence	city	Incorporated Area
- Norton	township
- Otto	township
- Pembroke	township
- Pilot	township
- Reddick	village	Incorporated Area
- Rockville	township
- Salina	township
- St. Anne	village	Incorporated Area
- Sun River Terrace	village	Incorporated Area
- Union Hill	village	Incorporated Area
- Yellowhead	township

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our 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."

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