McLean County, Illinois Genealogy

United States Illinois  McLean County

Parent County

 * 1830--McLean County was created 25 December 1830 from Tazewell County and unorganized territory.

County seat:Bloomington

Record Loss
The Bloomington Fire

A Loss of $2,000,000, Covering Five Blocks of Houses and Including the Courthouse.

Bloomington, Ill., June 19.-Fire early this morning swept the business section of the city, burning between forty and fifty business houses and entailing a loss of $2,000,000. Word was sent to Peoria and Springfield to send fire engines. As every effort to check progress of the flames proved futile, the blowing up of buildings with dynamite was resorted to after the fire had been raging for three hours and a half. A strong east wind prevailed, which made the work of the firemen extremely difficult.

Among the buildings destroyed and some of the losses are the following:

..., and the courthouse.

Two firemen are missing and are probably in the ruins. The burned district covers an area of five blocks.

The insurance is approximately $800,000.

Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 20 Jun 1900

A Terrible Fire

Half the Business Portion of Bloomington, Ills., Wiped Out by Fire

Courthouse Hotels and Dozens on the City's Finest Buildings Destroyed.

Total Loss Variously Estimated at Between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000

Bloomington, Ills., June 20.-A fire which broke out at 12:30 a.m. wiped out nearly one-half of the business portion of Bloomington, .... Two sides of the courthouse square are in ruins. The north and the east and the other two blocks cornering on the square and one-half of the block west of the square are also destroyed. The courthouse, which is standing, is gutted from dome to basement. As far as known no lives were lost or anyone seriously injured.

The fire broke out in the Model laundry on Monroe Street, in the block northeast of the courthouse. The flames soon got beyond control and spread to the 4-story brick structure belonging to the B.S. Green company.

Government Building Escapes

In an hour the entire block was destroyed excepting the government building in which is located the post office and which escaped unharmed.

... . .with the entire block lying east of the courthouse was destroyed. The courthouse caught from Griesheim building and burned slowly, the clock in the dome running until it struck 4.

The Bloomington, Peoria and Springfield fire departments arrived about 6 a.m., and aided the local firemen in getting the fire burning in a westerly direction under control. In all 40 to 50 business houses were destroyed.

Aberdeen Daily News, Aberdeen, SD 20 Jun 1900

source:gendisasters.com

Neighboring Counties

 * Champaign
 * DeWitt
 * Ford
 * Livingston
 * Logan
 * Piatt
 * Tazewell
 * Woodford

African American
The following have information concerning African American research.


 * African American Research (US) has more information about the kinds of records


 * Illinois State Archives pamphlet on African American Research describes what records are at the State Archives with an online method for ordering records.
 * African-American Resources for Illinois

Cemeteries
Cemetery records often identify birth, death, relationship, and military information, as well as religious affiliation.

Evergreen Cemetery (Bloomington) is a 80 plus acre cemetery from the 1820's. It is the final resting place of some prominent MCLean County individuals, including Adlai Stevenson I, baseball player Charles "Ol Hoss" Radbourne, David Davis, Supreme Court Judge and friend of Abe Lincoln, and Dorothy Gage, the inspiration for the Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. The cemetery caretakers have done a wonderful job with their website, and have over 26,000 burials recorded for on line searching. Each year, it is the host of the Evergreen Cemetery Walk, where actors in period clothing portray the life of some of the individuals in the cemetery, while standing at their grave site. This cemetery has won awards for its dedication to preserving history.


 * Find A Grave can be searched by the name of a person or family to find where a person is buried. Usually gives birth and death dates often with a picture of the tombstone.  May give obituaries,names of family members and links to their information in Find A Grave.


 * Find A Grave also gives a list of cemeteries in McLean County and links to the information for the individuals buried there.


 * McLean Co. IL USGenWeb Tombstone Project usually gives the names of the deceased in alphabetical order by last name with birth and death dates plus any remarks.


 * Illinois Cemeteries by county.


 * The Family History Library Catalog lists . Some of the books or others may be on Google Books or available at public libraries.


 * ePodunk list of McLean County cemeteries gives the names of the cemeteries in the county with a link to more information such as address, phone number, and web site.

Church
LDS Ward and Branch Records


 * Bloomington

Military

 * Civil War Civil War service men from McLean County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies or regiments that were formed from men of McLean County.


 * - 58th Regiment, Illinois Infantry, Company G.
 * - 63rd Regiment, Illinois Infantry, Company D.
 * - 70th Regiment, Illinois Infantry, Company H.
 * - 82nd Regiment, Illinois Infantry, Company E.
 * - 94th Regiment, Illinois Infantry, Companies, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and K.

Societies and Libraries
The Lexington Genealogical and Historical Society, Inc. (a.k.a. "The Fort" at Lexington, Illinois is a small building crammed with genalogical materials that cover McLean, Livingston, Woodford and Ford Counties. While their records exist in either paper or microfilm form, it is a gold mine. They have saved obituaries from newspapers, extensive cemetery records and have some microfilm of marriage records, etc. from official sources. The staff is friendly and knowledgable.

Web Sites

 * McLean County, Illinois Genealogy and Family History(Linkpendium)
 * McLean County, Illinois Genealogy and Family History(Linkpendium)