Whiteside County, Illinois

County: Whiteside

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 41.7500, -89.9167

The Illinois General Assembly created Whiteside County in 1836, from Henry and Jo Daviess counties. The new county remained attached to Jo Daviess County and later Ogle County for administrative purposes until 1839, when county residents voted on a permanent county seat. Originally given to Lyndon, the seat was ordered to move to Sterling after the ballots were inspected. Sterling acted as county seat until 1843, when the General Assembly again ordered the county to vote on a permanent county seat. At that election, voters chose Lyndon as the seat. In 1846, the county circuit court began meeting at the newly-constructed courthouse in Sterling while the county commissioners' court continued to meet at Lyndon. In 1849, the legislature again intervened, establishing Lyndon as the county seat, and ordering the county's residents to vote once more on a permanent seat of justice. At that election, county voters chose Sterling, where the seat remained until 1857, when voters chose to remove the seat to Morrison.

An Act to Establish Certain Counties; An Act to Locate the County Seat of Whiteside County, and Provide for the Election of County Officers; Charles Bent, ed., History of Whiteside County, Illinois (Clinton, IA: L. P. Allen, 1877), 71-76; "An Act Permanently to Locate the Seat of Justice of Whiteside County," 8 February 1849, Laws of Illinois (1849), 48-50; "An Act to Remove the Seat of Justice of Whiteside County," 7 February 1857, Laws of Illinois (1857), 236-38.