Monticello, Illinois

City: Monticello

County: Piatt

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 40.0167, -88.5667

Situated in central Illinois roughly twenty-five miles northeast of Decatur and half a mile southeast of the Sangamon River, Monticello's founders named it after Thomas Jefferson's estate in Virginia. Originally part of Macon County, it received its first post office in December 1837. Monticello became incorporated and the county seat of Piatt County upon that county's creation in January 1841. It became known primarily for agricultural production.

Webster's New Geographical Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1988), 787; James N. Adams, comp., Illinois Place Names (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society, 1989), 443; Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World. A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer or Geographical Dictionary of the World (Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott, 1880), 1878; Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 234.