Newark, IL

Newark is a Kendall County village on Illinois Route 71, southwest of Yorkville and on the road toward Ottawa. It began as Georgetown in 1835, took the name Newark in 1843, and incorporated as a village in 1875. Education has been part of the local story from early on: the Fowler Institute opened in 1857, and a new high school was built on Chicago Road in 1930. The Illinois Midland Railroad arrived in 1914, tying the village to the farm-and-market network beyond Kendall County. Today the senior center and ambulance service sit alongside that older village history, giving Newark the practical shape of a small rural service community.