Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
From the record
“The Henry County Courthouse, located at 307 West Center Street in Cambridge, is the county courthouse serving Henry County, Illinois. Built in 1878-1880, the courthouse is the fourth used in Henry County and the second built in Cambridge.”
Wikipedia article Henry County Courthouse (Illinois), CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 16 National Register listings published here for Henry County · listed in 2004 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.04000869- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Cambridge township. The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
The good people of the county, more especially oi Kewanee, were, in the latter part of August, 1882, startled by the news that the First National Bank of Kewanee had been robbed in broad daylight. Two armed men had entered the bank, just after the close of business hours, and, by violence overcoming the only two employees in the room at the time, had carried off the money, first throwing these two persons - the assistant cashier, Mr.
The land on which the town of Cambridge now stands was, prior to the year 1843, the property of Rev. Ithamar Pillsbury, so well known in the early history of the New York and New England 'Colonies' finding homes in Henry County. As soon as the site received legislative sanction - the act having passed that body February -1, 1843, - he deeded to the Board of County Commissioners, at a special meeting held on April 19, 1843, the fractional parts of two forty-acre lots. These were at once accepted, and steps taken to lay out a town. A contract had been made between the county and Geo. Brandenburg and Corey for constructing a jail and court-house at Morristown. A small frame court-house was already built, but at this time was still unfinished, and but little work had been done on the jail. By consent of these parties this contract was annulled, the settlement being left to Marcus B. Osborn, N. W. Washburn and Luke C. Sheldon, as referees. They gave their decision at the regular term of the court, held on the 6th of June following. This was to pay the contractors fl27.2(>, and keep the building. A day or two after the court met again, at the cabin commenced by J. Tillson and finished by A. H. Showers, in Sugar Tree Grove, for the transaction of any business relating to the new town.
It was ordered that the Court proceed forthwith to the sale of lots in Cambridge, on the following terms : One-third to be paid in six months after date of sale ; one-third in twelve months, and the remainder in eighteen months ; and that purchasers have the privilege of paying in building materials, on or before the 1st day of the September following. George McHenry, being in his place as auctioneer, a full board, and a good attendance of citizens, the sale proceeded. Twenty lots were sold on that occasion, aggregating the sum of $558. For the benefit of those interested, the list of purchasers and number of lot, and amount of sale, in the order in which they appear on record, are given: Joseph Tillson,
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Henry County Courthouse
in 2008, burning under an acre in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
1
Equipment and vehicle use
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
1 working within 5 miles of Henry County Courthouse: 1 past producer.
None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Cambridge, the town this property stands in, in 52 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 28 thunderstorm wind, 21 hail, 1 flash flood, 1 lightning.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Heavy rains caused flash flooding of parts of Henry County during the afternoon of September 13.||East of Galva, flood waters were flowing over Highway 34.||Near Cambridge, several basements were flooded.
Severe thunderstorm winds damaged tents, concession booths, fences, and large trees at the county fairgrounds, where the annual county fair was underway.
Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph blew a tree down onto a garage about 1 mile west of Cambridge, IL at 620 am July 21. Several four inch diameter branches were also blown down across the area.
Spotter reports and photos confirm that a brief tornado occurred southwest of Cambridge Illinois on Saturday evening. There was no observable damage from which the NWS could assign an EF-scale rating for the tornado.
The emergency manager relayed numerous reports of widespread tree damage across the county. Most of the damage was downed tree branches along with a couple of trees down on roadways.
Wind gusts estimated to be 65 mph blew a large tree limb down 1 mile west of Cambridge, IL at 500 pm June 23. Several other smaller branches were also blown down.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
Listed places nearby
3 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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