Cumberland

Formed March 2, 1843 (97^th county)

Cumberland County (10,448), Toledo (1,160), Neoga (1,394)

The classic red brick courthouse with a working clock tower was built in 1887 and replaced the 1857 building.  It sits in the middle of city square where Main and Meridian streets join into Courthouse Square.  Illinois State Highway 121 is Main Street in the town.  McDonald Brothers are the architects for the Georgian Revival structure.  The grounds feature a Liberty Bell replica, a gazebo, and veteran memorials.  Cumberland County was taken from Coles County on March 2, 1843 as the 97^th county.  Greenup was the first county seat until 1855 when Toledo became the county seat.  The county is named for the Cumberland Road which went from Cumberland, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois.  Toledo is Hebrew for “families” or “generations.” 

Cumberland County government consists of a sheriff, an attorney, a coroner, a clerk, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive).  It has 6 Board Members (legislative.)  Seventeen Circuit Court Judges serve Cumberland, Clark, Coles, Edgar, and Vermilion counties and a court clerk serves Cumberland County (judicial.)  The county is located in southeast Illinois to the southeast of Springfield, Illinois and west of Terre Haute, Indiana.  The county center is 2.7 miles East-Southeast of Toledo.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Coles, Clark, Jasper, Effingham, and Shelby counties. 

The area of the county is 345 square miles.  It is 84 out of 102 in the state.  It ranks 87 out of 102 in population in the state.  It has a density of 30.3 persons per square mile making it 74 out of 102 in the state.  Cumberland County has 39.5% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 57 cuts the northeast corner of the county going from Coles County, north, to Shelby County, west.  Interstate Highway 70 travels east to west from Clark to Effingham counties.  United States Highway 40 parallels Interstate Highway 70 from Clark County to Effingham County.  United States Highway 45 parallels Interstate Highway 57 from Coles to Shelby counties.  The county is a rectangle.  Toledo is slightly west of county center.  Neoga is in the northwest corner of the county.  Toledo is the county seat and Neoga is the largest city.  Toledo is 11.1% of the county population while Neoga is 13.3% of the county population.  The largest city is pronounced NEE-OE-GA.  This county is in the Charleston-Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area.