McHenry County, Illinois

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

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Etymology - Origin of County Name

Gen. William McHenry, fought in the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War; served in several early General Assemblies.

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History

McHenry County was created on January 16, 1836 (Laws, 1836, p. 273) and was formed from Cook County and unorganized (La Salle County). Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Cook County (1831–1836), LaSalle County (1831–1836), 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 (1795–1801).

The County was named for William McHenry, a pioneer of White County, soldier of the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War, Representative in the first, fourth, fifth and ninth General Assemblies, and Senator in the sixth General Assembly. The County Seat is Woodstock . Prior County Seats was McHenry (1837–1843) and Woodstock—Named Centreville until 1844 (1843–Present).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 611 square miles (1,583 km²), of which, 604 square miles (1,563 km²) of it is land and 8 square miles (20 km²) of it (1.25%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Walworth County, Wis.
Northeast: Kenosha County, Wis.
East: Lake County
Southeast: Cook County
South: Kane County
Southwest: DeKalb County
West: Boone County

Cities and Towns:

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County Resources:

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County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

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."

Penn Foster High School

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