Livingston County, Illinois

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

County Seat: Pontiac
Year Organized: 1837
Square Miles: 1,044

Court House:

112 W. Madison Street
County Courthouse
Pontiac, IL 61764-1800

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Edward Livingston, US Secretary of State under President Andrew Jackson.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Livingston County was created on February 27, 1837 (Laws, 1837, p. 33) and was formed from unorganized land, La Salle and McLean Counties. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: LaSalle County (1831–1837), McLean County (1831–1837), Vermilion County (1826–1837), Tazewell County (1827–1831), Fayette County (1821–1827), Edgar County (1823–1826), 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 Edward Livingston, a lawyer and statesman, Mayor of the City of New York, Representative in Congress from New York and later from Louisiana, United States Senator from Louisiana, Secretary of State under Jackson, and United States Minister to France. The County Seat is Pontiac (1837-Present).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,045 square miles (2,708 km²), of which, 1,044 square miles (2,703 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (4 km²) of it (0.16%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Grundy County
Northeast: Kankakee County
Southeast: Ford County
Southwest: McLean County
West: Woodford County
Northwest: La Salle County

Cities and Towns:

- Amity	township
- Avoca	township
- Campus	village	Incorporated Area
- Charlotte	township
- Chatsworth	town	Incorporated Area
- Cornell	village	Incorporated Area
- Cullom	village	Incorporated Area
- Dwight	village	Incorporated Area
- Emington	village	Incorporated Area
- Eppards Point	township
- Esmen	township
- Fairbury	city	Incorporated Area
- Flanagan	village	Incorporated Area
- Forrest	village	Incorporated Area
- Germanville	township
- Indian Grove	township
- Long Point	village	Incorporated Area
- Nebraska	township
- Nevada	township
- Newtown	township
- Odell	village	Incorporated Area
- Owego	township
- Pike	township
- Pleasant Ridge	township
- Pontiac (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Reading	township
- Rooks Creek	township
- Saunemin	village	Incorporated Area
- Strawn	village	Incorporated Area
- Sunbury	township

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."