Leland, IL

Leland is a LaSalle County village that began as Whitfield in 1853 and picked up its present name through the post office in the years that followed. The name honored John Leland Adams, the local postmaster, and a Leland post office has operated since 1857. Today the Leland Area History Center occupies the historic Yocklich building on North Main Street, giving the village a place to gather photographs, records, and artifacts from the surrounding farm country. Leland sits between Sandwich, Mendota, and Ottawa in the northeast part of the county, within the Ottawa micropolitan area. It is a small Illinois village where a postmaster's name still points to the town center.