Chemung, Illinois

City: Chemung

County: McHenry

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 42.415278, -88.666667

The village of Chemung was inhabited about 1844 by white settlers from Chemung, New York and received a U.S. Post Office the following year. The village gave its name to the surrounding township when it was organized. It is located about two miles west of Harvard. The name Chemung comes from the Algonquian language of the Delaware people and means “big horn.”

Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 67; History of McHenry County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1885), 431, 435-36.