Kendall County, Illinois

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

County Seat: Yorkville
Year Organized: 1841
Square Miles: 321

Court House:

111 W. Fox Street
County Office Building
Yorkville, IL 60560-1621

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The County was named for Amos Kendall, a successful politician and journalist, Postmaster General under Jackson, and as partner of S.F.B. Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph, he contributed largely to the commercial success of that invention.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Kendall County was created on February 19, 1841 (Laws, 1841, p. 75) and was formed from La Salle and Kane Counties. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Kane County (1836–1841), LaSalle County (1831–1841), Putnam County (1825–1831), 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 Amos Kendall, a successful politician and journalist, Postmaster General under Jackson, and as partner of S.F.B. Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph, he contributed largely to the commercial success of that invention. The County Seat is Yorkville . Prior County Seats was Yorkville (1841–1845), Oswego (1845–1864) and Yorkville (1864–Present). The historic courthouse in Yorkville built in 1864 was used until 1998 when the new courthouse was completed. The building is currently undergoing extensive restoration.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 323 square miles (836 km²), of which, 321 square miles (830 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (5 km²) of it (0.65%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Kane County
Northeast: DuPage County
Southeast: Will County
South: Grundy County
Southwest: La Salle County
Northwest: DeKalb County

Cities and Towns:

- Big Grove	township
- Bristol	township
- Fox	township
- Kendall	township
- Lisbon	village	Incorporated Area
- Little Rock	township
- Millbrook	village	Incorporated Area
- Millington	village	Incorporated Area
- Montgomery	village	Incorporated Area
- Na-Au-Say	township
- Newark	village	Incorporated Area
- Oswego	village	Incorporated Area
- Plano	city	Incorporated Area
- Yorkville (County Seat)	city	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."