Sangamon County, Illinois

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

County Seat: Springfield
Year Organized: 1821
Square Miles: 868

Court House:

200 S. 9th Street
County Courthouse
Springfield, IL 62701-1629

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Native American name meaning "the land of plenty to eat."

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Sangamon County was created on January 30, 1821 (Laws, 1821, p. 45) and was formed from Bond and Madison Counties. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Bond County (1817–1821), Madison County (1812–1821), St. Clair County (1790–1812) and Knox, Northwest Territory (1790–1801).

The County was named for the Sangamon River which flows through the county which derived its name from the Pottawatomie Indian word Sain-guee-mon or Sangamon (pronounced sang gä mun) meaning literally "where there is plenty to eat" or what we would call the "land of milk and honey." The County Seat is Springfield . Prior County Seats was Springfield—Temporary designation (1821–1825) and Springfield—Permanent designation (1825-Present).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 877 square miles (2,271 km²), of which, 868 square miles (2,249 km²) of it is land and 9 square miles (23 km²) of it (1.01%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Logan County
East: Macon County
Southeast: Christian County; Montgomery County
Southwest: Macoupin County
West: Morgan County
Northwest: Cass County; Menard County

Cities and Towns:

- Auburn	city	Incorporated Area
- Ball	township
- Berlin	village	Incorporated Area
- Berry	township
- Buckhart	township
- Buffalo	village	Incorporated Area
- Buffalo Hart	township
- Cantrall	village	Incorporated Area
- Capital	township
- Cartwright	township
- Chatham	village	Incorporated Area
- Clear Lake	village	Incorporated Area
- Cooper	township
- Cotton Hill	township
- Curran	township
- Dawson	village	Incorporated Area
- Divernon	village	Incorporated Area
- Fancy Creek	township
- Grandview	village	Incorporated Area
- Illiopolis	village	Incorporated Area
- Jerome	village	Incorporated Area
- Lanesville	township
- Leland Grove	city	Incorporated Area
- Loami	village	Incorporated Area
- Maxwell	township
- Mechanicsburg	village	Incorporated Area
- New Berlin	village	Incorporated Area
- Pawnee	village	Incorporated Area
- Pleasant Plains	village	Incorporated Area
- Richland	township
- Riverton	village	Incorporated Area
- Rochester	village	Incorporated Area
- Sherman	village	Incorporated Area
- Southern View	village	Incorporated Area
- Spaulding	village	Incorporated Area
- Springfield (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Talkington	township
- Thayer	village	Incorporated Area
- Williams	township
- Williamsville	village	Incorporated Area
- Woodside	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."