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Illinois County
Henry County, Illinois
Geneseo's Illinois farm heritage and the Bishop Hill colony - from Bishop Hill (the 1846 Swedish utopian colony established by Erik Jansson and 1,500 followers who sailed from Sweden to Illinois to create a communal religious community - the colony's remarkably preserved buildings, including the Steeple Building and the Colony Church, are a National Historic Landmark and one of the finest surviving examples of communal settlement architecture in America) to Geneseo's prosperous agricultural identity and Kewanee's Hog Capital of the World designation.
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Office: Henry County Sheriff’s Office – 311 W. Center Street, Cambridge, IL 61238 | (309) 937-3911 | Email: [email protected]; Sheriff Kerry Loncka. Hours: Mon-Fri 8 AM-4:30 PM, operates 24/7 for emergency response. Jail capacity 132 beds.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911. The office traces continuously to Henry County’s 1837 government founding, with 32 total sheriffs to date; Sheriff Byron Pierce was killed in the line of duty on June 13, 1946, shot while investigating a report of suspicious activity on a farm east of Cambridge – a somber part of the department’s documented history, referenced here with care.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: SR-81/78 serve Cambridge, the county seat, part of the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island (Quad Cities) Metropolitan Statistical Area; Kewanee is the county’s largest city.
Notes: Henry County was formed January 13, 1825, from Fulton County, named for Revolutionary War figure Patrick Henry, settled largely by New England and upstate New York migrants. County government was established in 1837, with elections first held at Brandenburg’s Tavern in Dayton Corners (near present-day Colona) – a multipurpose establishment that also served as hotel, post office, and horse stable; only a small stone monument marks its former site today.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Henry County Courthouse – 307 West Center Street, Cambridge, IL (built 1878-1880, Second Empire, architects T.J. Tolan and Son, built by Julian Hinkley; the fourth courthouse in county history and second built in Cambridge; National Register of Historic Places since 2004).
Notes: The county seat moved three times in Henry County’s early history: the first seat, “Richmond,” was established near the county’s geographic center in 1837, but its courthouse burned down just one month after opening; a historical marker on Route 82 between Cambridge and Geneseo marks the vanished town’s former site today. Cambridge itself was founded in 1843 on land donated by Reverend Ithamar Pillsbury, largely settled by Yankee migrants from New England.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Henry County Veterans Assistance – confirm current contact via henrycty.com.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Cambridge Public Library (Cambridge) – confirm current address/phone via the county library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Henry County Courthouse (National Register of Historic Places), the historical marker at the site of vanished Richmond, and the Brandenburg’s Tavern monument are the county’s premier heritage attractions.
Notes: The genuine, well-documented three-time relocation of Henry County’s seat, alongside the county’s continuous list of 32 sheriffs dating to 1837, are among the standout local historical facts covered in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Henry County Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via henrycty.com.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Confirm current dedicated shelter contact via henrycty.com; Henry County Sheriff’s Office for animal control arrangements.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Henry County Environmental Health – confirm current contact via henrycty.com.
NOTES: Henry County is the thirty-seventh county completed in Illinois’s Round 3 v2 redo, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. The genuine, well-documented history of the county seat’s relocations and the sheriff’s office’s continuous 32-sheriff lineage are among the standout local facts covered in this project. A line-of-duty death in 1946 is referenced factually and with care. 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 Henry County
Henry County is northwestern Illinois’s Swedish heritage and hog farming county – home to one of America’s most significant surviving utopian colony sites and a proud agricultural identity.
Bishop Hill – a tiny village of about 100 people – preserves the physical legacy of the 1846 Swedish utopian settlement. Erik Jansson led 1,500 followers from Sweden to establish a communal Christian community on the Illinois prairie. The colony’s 12 surviving original buildings are a National Historic Landmark, and the annual Midsommarfest celebrates the Swedish heritage.
Kewanee (population ~12,000) is the Hog Capital of the World – the annual Kewanee Hog Days festival celebrates the county’s significant pork production heritage.
Geneseo (population ~6,500) is Henry County’s most prosperous community – a well-maintained small city serving the surrounding agricultural region.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Henry County Assessor at 307 W. Center Street, Cambridge, IL 61238, phone 309-937-3570. IL residential assessed at 33.33% of market value. Appeal to Board of Review.
Courts & Legal
Henry County Circuit Court at 307 W. Center Street, Cambridge, IL 61238, phone 309-937-3572, 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)
307 W. Center St., Cambridge, IL 61238
(309) 937-3578
CIRCUIT CLERK (Court Records, Marriage Licenses)
307 W. Center St., Cambridge, IL 61238
(309) 937-2488
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
307 W. Center St., Cambridge, IL 61238
(309) 937-3578
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Henry County Circuit Clerk (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Henry 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
Henry County Circuit Clerk (14th Judicial Circuit) 307 West Center Street, Cambridge, IL 61238 (309) 937-3572 Henry County is in northwestern Illinois, part of the Quad Cities region.
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 Henry 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 Henry 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
307 W. Center St., Cambridge, IL 61238
(309) 937-3424
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
307 W. Center St., Cambridge, IL 61238
(309) 937-3578
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
307 W. Center St., Cambridge, IL 61238
(309) 937-3578
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Henry County Health Dept
(309) 937-3405
IL DCFS — Kewanee
(309) 852-4551
IL Medicaid
(800) 843-6154
OSF St. Luke Medical Center (Kewanee)
osfsaintluke.org
UnityPoint Health — Trinity (Rock Island)
unitypoint.org/trinity
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Henry County Health Department – confirm current contact via henrycty.com.
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