Sangamon County, Illinois

County: Sangamon

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 39.7667, -89.6500

Created in 1821 out of Madison and Bond counties, Sangamon County originally included all of its current territory as well as the entirety of Cass, Menard, Logan, Mason, and Tazewell counties, along with parts of Christian, Macon, McLean, Morgan, Woodford, Marshall, and Putnam counties. Over the next two decades, these counties were created from portions of Sangamon County, and it reached its present size in 1839. Its name is derived from the Sangamon River. Its seat has always been Springfield, which became the state capital in 1839 and was the home of Abraham Lincoln from 1837 to 1861. It was part of the Eighth Judicial Circuit from 1839 to 1857 and then became part of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit.

Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Sangamon County (Chicago: Munsell, 1912), 2:627-629, 635-638; History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), 45-54, 70-75; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 30-61.