Geneva, Illinois

City: Geneva

County: Kane

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 41.8833, -88.3000

Geneva, Illinois, is a city and the county seat of Kane County, Illinois. Situated in northeast Illinois, thirty-six miles west of Chicago, Geneva and the surrounding area began to attract Euro-American settlers in the early 1830s. Founded in 1832 and originally known as Herrington's Ford in honor of James Herrington, an early settler and first postmaster, Geneva became county seat of Kane County upon the county's inception in 1836. The county surveyor surveyed and platted the town in 1837, and its name changed to Geneva after Geneva, New York, which itself was named for the lake and city in Switzerland. The U.S. Post Office Department established a post office in Geneva in March 1836.

Webster's New Geographical Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1988), 433; Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 134; R. Waite Joslyn and Frank W. Joslyn, History of Kane County, Ill. (Chicago: Pioneer, 1908), 1:819-20; The Past and Present of Kane County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1878); 319-20.