Geneseo, Illinois

City: Geneseo

County: Henry

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 41.4333, -90.1500

Members of the First Congregational Church of Bergen, in Genesee County, New York organized Geneseo as a religious colony in 1836, and the settlement was platted late in 1837. The location was named in tribute to the New York home of the settlers. In 1839 fire destroyed the public buildings in Richmond, then the county seat of Henry County. The county seat was then temporarily removed to Geneseo, with the post office transferred from Richmond to Geneseo in 1840. Geneseo was incorporated as a town in 1855 and as a city ten years later.

James N. Adams, comp., Illinois Place Names (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society, 1989), 372; Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 134; Henry L. Kiner, History of Henry County Illinois (Chicago: Pioneer, 1910), 1:492-504; Joseph L. Shaw, “The Governmental History,” Geneseo Centennial History 1836-1936 (Kewanee, IL: Star Courier, 1936), 20-21; An Act to Legalize the Acts of Certain Officers of Henry County, and for Other Purposes; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1832-1844, 12b:516, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; “An Act to Incorporate the Town of Geneseo, in Henry County,” 14 February 1855, Private Laws of Illinois (1855), 1-10; “An Act to Incorporate the City of Geneseo,” 16 February 1865, Private Laws of Illinois (1865), 370-91.