Ford

Formed February 17, 1859 (102^nd county)

Ford County (13,531), Paxton (4,452)

The masonry and brown brick domed building was erected in 1906 in the Second Empire style.  The building sits on State, American, Holmes, and Taft streets.  United States Highway 45 is three blocks east of the site.  There was also an 1862 courthouse in Paxton, the only county seat.  Joseph W. Royer provided the designs.  Ford County was formed on February 17, 1859 from Kankakee County as the 102^nd and last county in Illinois.  The county is named for Governor Thomas Ford.  Illinois Central Railroad investor Sir Joseph Paxton is the namesake for the county seat. 

Ford County government consists of a sheriff, an attorney, a coroner, a clerk, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive).  It has 12 Board Members (legislative.)  Eighteen Circuit Court Judges serve Ford, Livingston, Logan, McLean, and Woodford counties and a court clerk serves Ford County (judicial.) The county is in east central Illinois east of Peoria, Illinois and south of Chicago, Illinois.  The county center is 8.9 miles Northwest of Paxton nearer Melvin.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Kankakee, Iroquois, Vermilion, Champaign, McLean, and Livingston counties. 

The area of the county is 485 square miles.  It is 56 out of 102 in the state.  It ranks 78 out of 102 in population in the state.  It has a density of 27.9 persons per square mile making it 80 out of 102 in the state.  Ford County has 76.4% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 57 cuts the southeast leg of the county from Iroquois County, north, to Champaign County, south.  United States Highway 24 crosses the northern leg east to west from Iroquois to Livingston counties.  United States Highway 45 parallels Interstate Highway 57 from Iroquois County to Champaign County.  The county’s shape is a capital letter T standing on its head.  Paxton is located in the southeast corner of the county.  Paxton is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 32.9% of the county population.  This county is in the Champaign-Urbana Metropolitan Statistical Area.