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Office: Cass County Sheriff’s Office – 101 North Front Street, Virginia, IL 62691 | (217) 452-7718 | Email: [email protected]; Sheriff Devron Ohrn, elected 2018, 19 years in law enforcement. County population approximately 14,000 across 383 square miles. No standalone county jail currently operated.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: SR-78/125 serve Virginia, the county seat. Cass County Courthouse Central Switchboard: (217) 452-2277.
Notes: Cass County was formed in 1837 from Morgan County, named for Lewis Cass, a War of 1812 general, Governor of the Michigan Territory, and later U.S. Secretary of State (1860), who had also served as Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of War. In 1839 the county selected the centrally located Virginia as its seat, but economic activity centered on Illinois River steamboat traffic prompted the seat to move to the river port of Beardstown in 1843.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Cass County Courthouse – 100 East Springfield Street, Virginia, IL (built 1872-1874, Italianate with a Mansard roof and porte-cochère, the county’s third courthouse).
Notes: Beardstown’s brick courthouse (the county’s second, still standing) was frequently used by Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln during his legal career. The construction of the Springfield and Illinois South Eastern Railway in 1871, serving Virginia and spanning the county, shifted economic activity away from river traffic; in a strategic 1872 move, leading citizens relocated the county seat back to Virginia, anticipating opposition from Beardstown.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Cass County Veterans Assistance – confirm current contact via co.cass.il.us.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Virginia Public Library (Virginia) – confirm current address/phone via the county library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area, the Cass County Courthouse, and the historic Beardstown courthouse (still standing, tied to Lincoln’s legal career) are the county’s premier heritage and recreational attractions.
Notes: The genuine Abraham Lincoln connection to the historic Beardstown courthouse, alongside the dramatic county-seat rivalry between Virginia and Beardstown, is among the standout local facts covered in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Cass County Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via co.cass.il.us.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Confirm current dedicated shelter contact via co.cass.il.us; Cass County Sheriff’s Office for animal control arrangements.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Cass County Environmental Health – confirm current contact via co.cass.il.us.
NOTES: Cass County is the ninth county completed in Illinois’s Round 3 v2 redo, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. The genuine Abraham Lincoln connection to the historic Beardstown courthouse 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 Cass County County
Cass County is west-central Illinois’s Sangamon-Illinois River confluence and waterfowl county – the Sanganois wildlife area’s productive bottomland where two rivers meet and the surrounding agricultural prairie define a small county where Virginia serves the farming and outdoor recreation communities in the Illinois River corridor.
Virginia (the county seat, population ~1,600) is Cass County’s governmental hub, a small west-central Illinois agricultural community on IL-125 serving the county’s farming and hunting communities near the Illinois River bottomland.
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Cass County Supervisor of Assessments at 100 E. Springfield Street, Virginia, IL 62691, phone 217-452-7925. IL assessed at 33.33% of market value.
Courts & Legal
Cass County Circuit Court at 100 E. Springfield Street, Virginia, IL 62691, phone 217-452-7225, 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)
100 W. State St., Virginia, IL 62691
(217) 452-7217
CIRCUIT CLERK (Court Records, Marriage Licenses)
100 W. State St., Virginia, IL 62691
(217) 452-7225
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
100 W. State St., Virginia, IL 62691
(217) 452-7217
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Cass County Circuit Clerk (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Cass County is home to the Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area.
Local societies
No dedicated Cass 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
Cass County Circuit Clerk (Eighth Judicial Circuit) 100 East Springfield Street, Virginia, IL 62691 (217) 452-7225
Cass County was founded in 1837 and named for Lewis Cass. The county seat moved from Beardstown to Virginia in 1843. The current 1872-1874 courthouse is Italianate in style. The Eighth Judicial Circuit also includes Adams, Brown, Calhoun, 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 Cass 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 Cass 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
100 W. State St., Virginia, IL 62691
(217) 452-7203
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
100 W. State St., Virginia, IL 62691
(217) 452-7217
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
100 W. State St., Virginia, IL 62691
(217) 452-7217
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Cass County Health Dept
(217) 452-7382
IL DCFS — Jacksonville
(217) 245-3554
IL Medicaid
(800) 843-6154
Passavant Area Hospital (Jacksonville)
passavanthospital.com
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Cass County Health Department – confirm current contact via co.cass.il.us.
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Editorial Trust
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Reviewed by CountyOffices Editorial Team
Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Virginia
Population: 12,500
Area: 378 sq mi
Established: 1837
Public Records
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