McDonough County, Illinois

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

County Seat: Macomb
Year Organized: 1826
Square Miles: 589

Court House:

One Courthouse Square
County Courthouse
Macomb, IL 61455-2200

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Commodore Thomas McDonough, defeated the British on Lake Champlain in 1814.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

McDonough County was created on January 25, 1826 (Laws, 1826, p. 76) and was formed from Schuyler County. County organization was completed on June 14, 1830. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Attached to Schuyler County [Laws, 1826, p. 76] (1826–1830), Schuyler County (1825–1826), Pike County (1821–1825), Madison County (1812–1821) and St. Clair County (1795–1812).

The County was named for Thomas McDonough, a Commodore of the United States Navy, who commanded the fleet on Lake Champlain in a successful engagement with the British fleet, near Plattsburg in 1814. The County Seat is Macomb (1831-Present).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 590 square miles (1,528 km²), of which, 589 square miles (1,526 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (2 km²) of it (0.13%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Warren County
East: Fulton County
South: Schuyler County
West: Hancock County
Northwest: Henderson County

Cities and Towns:

- Bardolph	village	Incorporated Area
- Blandinsville	village	Incorporated Area
- Bushnell	city	Incorporated Area
- Chalmers	township
- Colchester	city	Incorporated Area
- Emmet	township
- Good Hope	village	Incorporated Area
- Hire	township
- Industry	village	Incorporated Area
- Lamoine	township
- Macomb (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Macomb City	township
- Mound	township
- Prairie City	village	Incorporated Area
- Sciota	village	Incorporated Area
- Scotland	township
- Tennessee	village	Incorporated Area
- Walnut Grove	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."