Cambridge, Illinois (Henry Co.)

City: Cambridge

County: Henry

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 41.3000, -90.1833

A post office was established in the vicinity of what was eventually the town of Cambridge in 1841 under the name of Strawberry Grove. About 1843 Cambridge was founded and named in honor of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Unhappy with the location of their county seat in Morristown, Henry County residents successfully petitioned the Illinois General Assembly in 1843 to move the county seat to the location which became the town of Cambridge. The post office name was changed from Strawberry Grove to Cambridge in 1844 and Cambridge was incorporated in 1861 and remains the county seat.

Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 56; “An Act for the Removal of the County Seat of Henry County,” 21 February 1843, Laws of Illinois (1843), 117-18; “An Act to Incorporate the Town of Cambridge, in the County of Henry and State of Illinois,” 21 February 1861, Private Laws of Illinois (1861), 557-62.