Kansas, Illinois

City: Kansas

County: Edgar

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 39.5500, -87.9333

The village of Kansas, Illinois is located thirteen miles southwest of Paris, Illinois. Lovel Wilhoit founded the village in 1853. Thinking it was located approximately halfway between Paris, Illinois and Charleston, Illinois, Wilhoit originally dubbed the village Midway. The U.S. Post Office Department established a post office in the village in February 1855. In 1858, after it was discovered that another post office was located in a village named Midway, the name of the village was changed to Kansas. The village's new name was derived from the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

James N. Adams, comp., Illinois Place Names (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society, 1989), 406; Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 182.