Bourbon, Illinois

City: Bourbon

County: Douglas

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 39.7333, -88.3667

Bourbon, Illinois is a community in Douglas County, Illinois. Situated on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad, six miles southwest of Tuscola, Bourbon came into existence in 1853, making it the third village founded in the county. Malden Jones laid out the village, and in August 1853, the U.S. Post Office Department established a post office in the village. Jones and other original settlers named it for Bourbon County, Kentucky, which itself was named for the French royal family, Les Bourbons, in honor of France’s assistance during the Revolutionary War. Construction of the Illinois Central Railroad, which passed four miles to the east of the village, hampered its growth. The Post Office Department discontinued the post office in January 1865.

Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 41; James N. Adams, comp., Illinois Place Names (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society, 1968), 299; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Illinois Historical: Douglas County Biographical, ed. by John W. King (Chicago: Munsell, 1910), 623.