Vermont, Illinois

City: Vermont

County: Fulton

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 40.2833, -90.4167

Vermont, Illinois, is a village in Fulton County, Illinois. Situated seventeen miles southeast of Macomb, Vermont attracted the first Euro-American settlers in 1833. With the assistance of Jonas Rawalt, Fulton County surveryor, James and Joseph Crail laid out what would become Vermont in 1835. Rawalt suggested the name Meridian for the community's location on the fourth principal meridian, but the Crail brothers gave the naming rights to Abitha Williams in exchange for a gallon of whiskey. Williams named the community Vermont in honor of his home state. The U.S. Post Office Department opened a post office in Vermont in August 1837. The Illinois General Assembly incorporated Vermont as a town in February 1857.

Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 358; History of Fulton County Illinois (Peoria, IL: Chas. C. Chapman, 1879), 899-900; "An Act to Incorporate the Town of Vermont," 13 February 1857, Private Laws of Illinois (1857), 531-37.