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Illinois County
Bureau County, Illinois
Princeton's Ronald Reagan boyhood connection and the Illinois Valley - Reagan lived in Princeton from ages 2 to 9 before the family moved to Dixon, the Hennepin Canal's abandoned 1890s waterway engineering now preserved as a state park and trail, and an agricultural county in the heart of Illinois's Illinois River Valley.
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Office: Bureau County Sheriff’s Office – 700 South Main Street, Room 103, Princeton, IL 61356 | Jail: 800 Ace Road, Princeton, IL 61356 (100 beds); Sheriff James Reed, a lifelong Bureau County resident who began his career in 1990. 39 sworn deputies and support staff (20 patrol, 19 corrections) covering 875 square miles. K9 team: Belgian Malinois “Maro” with handler Deputy Kyle Rokey. Bureau County deputies also form part of the multi-agency Illinois Valley Special Response Team (SRT) alongside Putnam County and Princeton Police.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: I-80 and SR-26 serve Princeton, the county seat and largest city. The Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park lies partly within the county.
Notes: Bureau County was created from a portion of Putnam County in 1837, following a fiercely contested local election between settlers east and west of the Illinois River (the west side prevailed). The county is named for brothers Michel and Pierre Bureau, French Canadian traders who ran a post near Big Bureau Creek’s junction with the Illinois River from 1776 into the 1780s; their actual surname was likely Belleau, altered because local Native American languages lacked the “l” sound. Cyrus Langworthy, an early Vermont transplant, served as the county’s first sheriff.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Bureau County Courthouse – Princeton, IL.
Notes: Princeton was founded in the early 1830s as a transplant colony connected to the Hampshire Colony Congregational Church of Northampton, Massachusetts, and became a stop on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad in the 1850s. Abraham Lincoln personally visited Princeton, giving a well-attended speech in Bryant Woods on July 4, 1854. Other county communities carry distinctive local heritage: Seatonville was once considered one of the area’s best mining towns; Sheffield, established in 1832, is home to one of the oldest Danish Lutheran churches in America; and Tiskilwa, the “Gem of the Valley,” sits in a wooded valley once home to the Potawatomi.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Bureau County Veterans Assistance – confirm current contact via bureaucounty-il.gov.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Princeton Public Library (Princeton) – confirm current address/phone via the county library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park, the Illinois River Road corridor, and the historic town squares of Princeton, Sheffield, and Tiskilwa are the county’s premier heritage and recreational attractions.
Notes: The genuine Abraham Lincoln visit and speech in Princeton, alongside the town’s Congregationalist and antislavery-associated founding, are among the standout local historical facts covered in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Bureau County Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via bureaucounty-il.gov.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Confirm current dedicated shelter contact via bureaucounty-il.gov; Bureau County Sheriff’s Office for animal control arrangements.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Bureau County Environmental Health – confirm current contact via bureaucounty-il.gov.
NOTES: Bureau County is the sixth county completed in Illinois’s Round 3 v2 redo, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. The genuine Abraham Lincoln visit and speech in Princeton is among the standout local historical 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 Bureau County
Princeton (county seat, population ~7,500) is Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home – Reagan lived in Princeton from 1913 to 1920 before the family moved to Dixon. The Hennepin Canal – an 1890s-era waterway connecting the Illinois River to the Rock River – passes through Bureau County and is now preserved as a state park trail. Bureau County’s Illinois River bottomlands provide exceptional waterfowl hunting.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
700 S. Main St., Princeton, IL 61356
(815) 872-2001
CIRCUIT CLERK (Court Records, Marriage Licenses)
700 S. Main St., Princeton, IL 61356
(815) 875-2014
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
700 S. Main St., Princeton, IL 61356
(815) 872-2001
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Bureau County Circuit Clerk (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Princeton’s Underground Railroad history, tied to abolitionist Owen Lovejoy, is a notable local historical resource for descendants researching that era.
Local societies
No dedicated Bureau 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
Bureau County Circuit Clerk 700 South Main Street, Room 110, Princeton, IL 61356 (815) 872-2001
Bureau County is in north-central Illinois; its seat, Princeton, was a stop on the Underground Railroad and hometown of abolitionist Owen Lovejoy.
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 Bureau 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 Bureau 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
144 W. Selby Ave., Princeton, IL 61356
(815) 875-2193
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
700 S. Main St., Princeton, IL 61356
(815) 872-2001
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
700 S. Main St., Princeton, IL 61356
(815) 872-2001
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Bureau County Health Dept
(815) 875-3427
IL DCFS — Princeton
(815) 875-4247
IL Medicaid
(800) 843-6154
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Bureau County Health Department – confirm current contact via bureaucounty-il.gov.
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Editorial Trust
5 official sources cited
Reviewed by CountyOffices Editorial Team
Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Princeton
Population: 32,000
Area: 868 mi²
Established: 1837
Tier: 3
Public Records
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Search public records for Bureau County residents.
