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Office: Brown County Sheriff’s Office – 200 East Court Street, Room #1, Mount Sterling, IL 62353 | (217) 773-2011 | Fax (217) 773-4882; Sheriff Justin D. Oliver, elected 2022, 17 years of law enforcement experience. Population approximately 6,244 across 307 square miles.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911. Brown County EMS staffs two ambulances 24/7 (one ALS, one BLS), with backup units and a non-transport unit stationed in Versailles.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: SR-99/100 serve Mount Sterling, the county seat, located geographically in the center of the county. The county maintains 67 miles of county highways and 16 bridges, with 9 township road commissioners overseeing an additional 381 miles of road and 54 bridges.
Notes: Brown County was founded in 1839, separating geographically from Schuyler County, and named for U.S. General Jacob Brown, who defeated the British at the 1813 Battle of Sackett’s Harbor. Mount Sterling was chosen as the new county seat after its residents pledged more than $5,000 toward public buildings – a substantial sum at a time when a county official might earn $3 for a day’s work.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Brown County Courthouse – 200 W. Court Street, Mount Sterling, IL (completed 1868, rebuilt around 1940, Neoclassical/Italianate, the county’s second courthouse; part of the Mount Sterling Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places since 1987). The original 1839 courthouse was a two-story square brick building measuring 45 feet on each side, designed by a Mr. Howland and built by contractor George Tebo.
Notes: Mount Sterling’s railroad era left a genuine local landmark: the 1868 Wabash Depot and freight house, once a focal point for circus trains, opera-house travelers, and freight deliveries, has been carefully restored by the Brown County Historical Society and now operates as the Whistle Stop Depot Museum on the county Fairgrounds (established 1872), alongside the restored one-room Ferguson School displaying country-school artifacts.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Brown County Veterans Assistance – confirm current contact via browncoil.org.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Mount Sterling Public Library (Mount Sterling) – confirm current address/phone via the county library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Whistle Stop Depot Museum, the restored Ferguson one-room school, the Brown County Fairgrounds, and Mount Sterling Lake are the county’s premier heritage and recreational attractions.
Notes: The genuine railroad-era heritage preserved at the Whistle Stop Depot Museum is among the standout local facts covered in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Brown County Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via browncoil.org.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Confirm current dedicated shelter contact via browncoil.org; Brown County Sheriff’s Office for animal control arrangements.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Brown County Environmental Health – confirm current contact via browncoil.org.
NOTES: Brown County is the fifth county completed in Illinois’s Round 3 v2 redo, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. The genuine railroad-era heritage preserved at the Whistle Stop Depot Museum is among the standout local facts covered in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Brown County County
Brown County is west-central Illinois’s quiet agricultural heartland county – rolling corn and soybean fields, cattle pastures, and the small community of Mount Sterling define one of western Illinois’s most consistently rural and least-changed agricultural landscapes between the Mississippi River bluffs and the Illinois River valley.
Mount Sterling (the county seat, population ~1,900) is Brown County’s governmental hub, a small west-central Illinois agricultural community on US 24 serving the county’s farming communities in the rolling Illinois prairie between Quincy and Springfield.
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Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Brown County Supervisor of Assessments at 200 Court Street, Mount Sterling, IL 62353, phone 217-773-3421. IL assessed at 33.33% of market value.
Courts & Legal
Brown County Circuit Court at 200 Court Street, Mount Sterling, IL 62353, phone 217-773-3421, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
200 Court St., Mount Sterling, IL 62353
(217) 773-2713
CIRCUIT CLERK (Court Records, Marriage Licenses)
200 Court St., Mount Sterling, IL 62353
(217) 773-3421
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
200 Court St., Mount Sterling, IL 62353
(217) 773-2713
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Brown County Circuit Clerk (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Brown County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Brown County Circuit Clerk (Eighth Judicial Circuit) 200 Court Street, Mt. Sterling, IL 62353 (217) 773-2713, ext. 3
Brown County is one of Illinois’ smaller, rural counties in west-central Illinois. The Eighth Judicial Circuit also includes Adams, Calhoun, Cass, Mason, Menard, Pike, and Schuyler Counties.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Illinois has NOT adopted the Uniform Probate Code and is not a community property state – it follows common law property principles. Illinois probate is governed by the Probate Act of 1975 (755 ILCS 5/). Two main paths:
Small Estate Affidavit – for estates where personal property (excluding real estate) is valued at $150,000 or less (raised from $100,000 effective August 15, 2025), with no unresolved debts or claims and no real estate involved. No formal court probate is required.
Formal Probate (Independent or Supervised Administration) – required when the estate doesn’t qualify for the small estate affidavit. Most Illinois probate cases proceed under Independent Administration, letting the estate representative act without prior court approval for most routine actions.
Step 2: filing for formal probate
File the decedent’s original will (if one exists) with the Brown County Circuit Clerk, where the decedent resided at death.
Petition the court to open the estate and appoint an executor (if there’s a will) or an administrator (if intestate).
The court issues Letters of Office (Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration) appointing the representative.
Publish notice to creditors and unknown heirs as required by Illinois law.
Under Independent Administration, the representative marshals assets, pays valid debts and taxes, and distributes the remaining estate without needing court approval for each step.
File a final accounting or closing documents to formally close the estate.
What it costs
Illinois imposes its own state estate tax on estates valued above $4 million, with rates up to 16%. There is no Illinois inheritance tax.
Filing fees vary by county – confirm current amounts with the Brown County Circuit Clerk.
Most uncontested probate proceedings in Illinois can be completed within about a year.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
200 Court St., Mount Sterling, IL 62353
(217) 773-2534
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
200 Court St., Mount Sterling, IL 62353
(217) 773-2713
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
200 Court St., Mount Sterling, IL 62353
(217) 773-2713
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Brown County Health Dept
(217) 773-2961
IL DCFS — Quincy
(217) 223-8110
IL Medicaid
(800) 843-6154
Blessing Hospital (Quincy)
blessinghospital.com
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Brown County Health Department – confirm current contact via browncoil.org.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Mount Sterling
Population: 6,600
Area: 306 sq mi
Established: 1839
Public Records
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