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Office: Ford County Sheriff’s Office – 235 N. American Street, Paxton, IL 60957 | 24-hr (217) 379-2324 | Office (217) 379-9470 | Fax (217) 379-9489 | Crime Stoppers (217) 379-2109; Sheriff Chad Johnson. Hours: Mon-Fri 8 AM-5 PM. Jail capacity 61 beds, in a Correctional Facility and Sheriff’s Office building completed 1993.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: I-57 serves Paxton, the county seat.
Notes: Ford County was formed February 17, 1859, genuinely Illinois’s 102nd and last county created, at the request of Vermilion County residents who complained of living too far from that county’s seat. Named for Thomas Ford, an Illinois governor, the county adopted the Township form of government by a November 6, 1860 election, and today comprises 12 townships (Rogers, Mona, Pella, Brenton, Lyman, Wall, Peach Orchard, Sullivant, Drummer, Dix, Patton, and Button).
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Ford County Courthouse – 200 West State Street, Paxton, IL (built 1905-1906, modified Second Empire, topped by a distinctive copper-covered dome; the county’s second courthouse, succeeding one used from 1862 to 1906).
Notes: Ford County genuinely solved a dispute between Paxton and Gibson City over the new courthouse’s location with a clever workaround: rather than choose a location outright, the old courthouse was “remodeled” – when the original building was torn down, one wall in the basement was deliberately left standing, and the new 1906 building was constructed upon and around it, thereby keeping the courthouse at its existing Paxton site and ending the argument.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Ford County Veterans Assistance – confirm current contact via fordcounty.illinois.gov.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Paxton Carnegie Library District (Paxton) – confirm current address/phone via the county library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Ford County Courthouse (with its distinctive copper dome) and downtown Paxton are the county’s premier heritage attractions.
Notes: The genuine, clever “one wall left standing” resolution to Ford County’s Paxton-Gibson City courthouse dispute is among the standout local facts covered in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Ford County Supervisor of Assessments Office – confirm current contact via fordcounty.illinois.gov.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Confirm current dedicated shelter contact via fordcounty.illinois.gov; Ford County Sheriff’s Office for animal control arrangements.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Ford County Environmental Health – confirm current contact via fordcounty.illinois.gov.
NOTES: Ford County is the twenty-seventh county completed in Illinois’s Round 3 v2 redo, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. The genuine, clever “one wall left standing” resolution to Ford County’s courthouse-location dispute 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 Ford County County
Ford County is north-central Illinois’s black soil corn belt and Swedish heritage county – some of the most productive agricultural land on earth and the 19th-century Swedish immigrant community that settled the Illinois prairie define a flat farming county where Paxton serves the surrounding agricultural communities in one of the most intensively farmed landscapes in America.
Paxton (the county seat, population ~4,300) is Ford County’s governmental hub on US 45, a north-central Illinois agricultural small city whose Swedish heritage, corn belt productivity, and I-57 access anchor its community identity in the flat prairie heartland.
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Ford County Supervisor of Assessments at 200 W. State Street, Paxton, IL 60957, phone 217-379-9465. IL assessed at 33.33% of market value.
Courts & Legal
Ford County Circuit Court at 200 W. State Street, Paxton, IL 60957, phone 217-379-9400, 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 W. State St., Paxton, IL 60957
(217) 379-9400
CIRCUIT CLERK (Court Records, Marriage Licenses)
200 W. State St., Paxton, IL 60957
(217) 379-9430
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
200 W. State St., Paxton, IL 60957
(217) 379-9400
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Ford County Circuit Clerk (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Ford 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
Ford County Circuit Clerk (11th Judicial Circuit) 200 West State Street, Room 106, Paxton, IL 60957 (217) 379-9420 Ford County is in east-central Illinois.
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 Ford 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 Ford 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
201 W. State St., Paxton, IL 60957
(217) 379-9380
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
200 W. State St., Paxton, IL 60957
(217) 379-9400
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
200 W. State St., Paxton, IL 60957
(217) 379-9400
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Ford County Health Dept
(217) 379-9281
IL DCFS — Champaign
(217) 278-5000
IL Medicaid
(800) 843-6154
Carle Foundation Hospital (Urbana)
carle.org
Presence United Samaritans (Danville)
presencehealth.org
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Ford County Health Department – confirm current contact via fordcounty.illinois.gov.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Paxton
Population: 13,000
Area: 485 sq mi
Established: 1859
Public Records
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