Biohazard Cleanup Near Rail Meadows Sherman, IL

Sherman is a village in Sangamon County, Illinois, just northeast of Springfield, the state capital, with a population of 4,673 at the 2020 census.

Sherman was platted in 1858 by four men - Virgil Hickox, Cornelius Flagg, Joseph Ledlie, and David Sherman - after the Chicago and Alton Railroad was extended through the area.

The town got its name by chance: the four founders put their names in a hat, and David Sherman's name was drawn, which is why it is not named for Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman.

Sherman did not incorporate until December 30, 1959, when voters approved incorporation by a close 79-to-57 margin and the new village had just 209 residents.

Many of Sherman's early settlers were Italian immigrants who worked in the coal industry, and the Peabody Mine just south of the original plat operated until it closed in 1934.

Interstate 55, built through the area between 1962 and 1974, replaced historic Route 66 traffic and turned Sherman into one of the Springfield area's fastest-growing suburbs from the 1970s onward.

Sherman's population has climbed from 2,093 in 1990 to 4,148 in 2010 and about 4,673 in 2020, and recent Census Bureau survey figures count roughly 1,585 households in the village.

Sherman was struck by a high-end EF-2 tornado during the March 31, 2023 tornado outbreak in central Illinois.

The Flagg Farmstead, built in 1871 for co-founder Cornelius Flagg on the old Springfield-to-Peoria stagecoach road, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The 4.4-mile Sherman-Williamsville Trail, a rail trail at the southern end of Sherman, links the village with neighboring Williamsville.