Cheney’s Grove, Illinois

City: Cheney’s Grove

County: McLean

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 40.4167, -88.5167

Jonathan Cheney settled with his family in McLean County at the headwaters of the Sangamon River in the mid-1820s, and the name Cheney’s Grove was ultimately applied to both the township and to the village that grew out of their settlement. The U.S. Post Office Department established the first post office in Cheney’s Grove in 1831, but in 1865 the post office name was changed to Saybrook, which was the village name thereafter.

Jacob L. Hasbrouck, History of McLean County Illinois (Topeka, KS: Historical, 1924), 1:89-90; Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 67, 312.