Jerome, IL

Jerome is a Sangamon County village nearly surrounded by Springfield, with a name that comes from farmer Jerome Leland. Development started in 1928 when a Kansas City company subdivided his former farmland, and residents incorporated the village in 1939 so they could arrange for city water. That origin gives Jerome a very specific central-Illinois backstory: a small subdivision that became a municipality because wells went dry and Springfield’s water system was close by. Today the village sits inside the capital city’s south-side map while keeping its own boundary and local government.