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Illinois County
Iroquois County, Illinois
The Watseka Wonder and Illinois's flattest agricultural county - from the Watseka Wonder (the 1877-78 Lurancy Vennum case in Watseka - in which a 13-year-old girl claimed to be possessed by the spirit of a deceased neighbor girl, Mary Roff, and demonstrated knowledge of the Roff family's private history that she could not have known - became one of the most documented and debated cases of apparent spirit possession in American history, studied by William James and cited in discussions of the supernatural for over a century) to Iroquois County's extraordinary agricultural productivity on the flat Kankakee plain.
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Office: Iroquois County Sheriff’s Office – 550 S. 10th Street, P.O. Box 67, Watseka, IL 60970 | (815) 432-4918; Sheriff Clinton J. Perzee.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-24 and SR-1 intersect at Watseka, the county seat, near the center of the county along the Indiana border.
Notes: Iroquois County was created February 26, 1833, from a portion of Vermilion County, named for the Iroquois River, itself named for the Iroquois people. Iroquois County is genuinely the only county in the entire United States named “Iroquois.” The county ranks third-largest in Illinois by area (1,120 square miles, behind only McLean and LaSalle counties), nearly as large as the state of Rhode Island.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Iroquois County Courthouse – 550 S. 10th Street, Watseka, IL (built 1965-1966, Modern Architecture in concrete and glass, architectural firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White of Chicago). County administration is housed separately at the Iroquois County Administrative Center, 1001 E. Grant Street, Watseka.
Notes: Iroquois County’s seat moved several times: first to the now-vanished town of Iroquois in 1837 (offices were rented rather than built), then to Middleport in 1839, before a protracted rivalry between Middleport and Watseka (also known as South Middleport) ended in 1865 with the seat’s final move to Watseka. The Old Iroquois County Courthouse (built 1866 at a cost of $28,000, Italianate, architect C.B. Leach, built by contractor A.C. Mantor; National Register of Historic Places since 1975) served until 1964, when it was nearly sold off; a 1967 citizen petition drive during Watseka’s Centennial Celebration saved the building, which reopened that year as the Iroquois County Historical Museum (103 W. Cherry Street).
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Iroquois County Veterans Assistance – confirm current contact via iroquoiscountyil.gov.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Watseka Public Library District (Watseka) – confirm current address/phone via the county library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Old Iroquois County Courthouse/Historical Museum (National Register of Historic Places) and downtown Watseka are the county’s premier heritage attractions.
Notes: The genuine, one-of-a-kind national distinction of Iroquois County as the only county in the United States bearing that name is among the most distinctive local facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Iroquois County Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via iroquoiscountyil.gov.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Confirm current dedicated shelter contact via iroquoiscountyil.gov; Iroquois County Sheriff’s Office for animal control arrangements.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Iroquois County Environmental Health – confirm current contact via iroquoiscountyil.gov.
NOTES: Iroquois County is the thirty-eighth county completed in Illinois’s Round 3 v2 redo, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. The genuine, one-of-a-kind national distinction of Iroquois County as the only county in the United States bearing that name is among the most distinctive local facts covered anywhere 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 Iroquois County
Iroquois County is east-central Illinois’s flat agricultural and paranormal heritage county – a community whose 1877 spirit possession case became one of American history’s most studied supernatural episodes.
The Watseka Wonder – the apparent possession of Lurancy Vennum by the spirit of the deceased Mary Roff – was investigated and documented by Dr. E.W. Stevens in a pamphlet that circulated widely. William James cited the case in his Principles of Psychology. The case remains one of the most carefully documented alleged possession cases in American history, with witnesses and corroborating testimony that investigators have never fully explained.
Watseka (the county seat, population ~5,000) serves the surrounding agricultural county – Iroquois County’s flat Kankakee plain produces exceptional corn and soybean yields on some of Illinois’s deepest and most productive soils.
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Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Iroquois County Assessor at 1001 E. Grant Street, Watseka, IL 60970, phone 815-432-6978. IL residential assessed at 33.33% of market value. Appeal to Board of Review.
Courts & Legal
Iroquois County Circuit Court at 550 S. 10th Street, Watseka, IL 60970, phone 815-432-6950, 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)
550 S. 10th St., Watseka, IL 60970
(815) 432-6960
CIRCUIT CLERK (Court Records, Marriage Licenses)
550 S. 10th St., Watseka, IL 60970
(815) 432-6950
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
550 S. 10th St., Watseka, IL 60970
(815) 432-6960
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Iroquois County Circuit Clerk (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Note: some Iroquois County records were lost or damaged in an 1866 courthouse fire.
Local societies
No dedicated Iroquois 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
Iroquois County Circuit Clerk 550 South 10th Street, Watseka, IL 60970 (815) 432-6950
Iroquois County was founded February 26, 1833. Its name comes from the Iroquois Confederacy, a group of six Native North American peoples originally from the Hudson River Valley; the name was first given to a river running between Jasper County, Indiana and the Kankakee River, then later applied to the county.
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 Iroquois 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 Iroquois 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
550 S. 10th St., Watseka, IL 60970
(815) 432-2171
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
550 S. 10th St., Watseka, IL 60970
(815) 432-6960
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
550 S. 10th St., Watseka, IL 60970
(815) 432-6960
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Iroquois County Health Dept
(815) 432-6988
IL DCFS — Watseka
(815) 432-5600
IL Medicaid
(800) 843-6154
Iroquois Memorial Hospital
iroquoismemorial.com (Watseka)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Iroquois County Health Department – confirm current contact via iroquoiscountyil.gov.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Watseka
Population: 27,000
Area: 1,118 sq mi (one of Illinois' largest counties by area)
Established: 1833
Tier: 3
Public Records
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