Sycamore, Illinois

City: Sycamore

County: DeKalb

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 41.9833, -88.6833

Sycamore, Illinois is a city in northern Illinois and the county seat of DeKalb County. Located thirty miles east-southeast of Elgin, Sycamore and the surrounding area first attracted Euro-American settlers in 1835. In October 1837, commissioners appointed for the purpose chose the site that would become Sycamore for the seat of newly-created DeKalb County, and called it Orange. In 1839, county residents voted against removing the seat from Orange and renamed the town Sycamore. Sycamore survived another similar vote in 1840, and has remained the county seat through and beyond the Civil War.

An Act to Relocate the Seat of Justice of the County of De Kalb; An Act Permanently to Locate the Seat of Justice of the County of De Kalb; Henry L. Boies, History of DeKalb County, Illinois (Chicago: O. P. Bassett, 1868), 368-69, 372-73, 376-77, 381, 388-89; Webster's New Geographical Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1988), 1175.