Whiteside County, Illinois

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

County Seat: Morrison
Year Organized: 1836
Square Miles: 685

Court House:

200 East Knox Street
County Courthouse
Morrison, IL 61270-2809

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Samuel Whiteside, Representative in the first General Assembly and brigadier general in the Black Hawk War.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Whiteside County was created on January 16, 1836 (Laws, 1836, p. 274) and was formed from Jo Daviess and Henry Counties. County organization was completed in 1839. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Attached to Ogle [Laws, 1836, p. 277] (1837–1839), Attached to JoDaviess [Laws, 1836, p. 277] (1836–1837), JoDaviess County (1827–1836), Henry County (1825–1836), Putnam County (1825–1827), Fulton County (1823–1825), Pike County (1821–1823), Madison County (1812–1821) and St. Clair County (1795–1812).

The County was named for Samuel Whiteside, a Colonel of the Territorial militia, Representative in the First General Assembly, and Brigadier General of the militia during the Black Hawk War. The County Seat is Morrison . Prior County Seats was Lyndon (1839–1841), Sterling (1841–1842), Lyndon (1842–1846), Circuit Court at Sterling, County Commissioners’ Court at Lyndon (1846–1847), Sterling (1847–1857), and Morrison (1857-Present).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 697 square miles (1,805 km²), of which, 685 square miles (1,774 km²) of it is land and 12 square miles (32 km²) of it (1.76%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Carroll County
Northeast: Ogle County
East: Lee County
Southeast: Bureau County
Southwest: Henry County; Rock Island County
Northwest: Clinton County, Iowa

Cities and Towns:

- Albany	village	Incorporated Area
- Clyde	township
- Coleta	village	Incorporated Area
- Coloma	township
- Deer Grove	village	Incorporated Area
- Erie	village	Incorporated Area
- Fenton	township
- Fulton	city	Incorporated Area
- Garden Plain	township
- Genesee	township
- Hahnaman	township
- Hopkins	township
- Jordan	township
- Lyndon	village	Incorporated Area
- Montmorency	township
- Morrison (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Mount Pleasant	township
- Portland	township
- Prophetstown	city	Incorporated Area
- Rock Falls	city	Incorporated Area
- Round Grove	township
- Sterling	city	Incorporated Area
- Tampico	village	Incorporated Area
- Union Grove	township
- Ustick	township
- Wethersfield	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."