Pearl City, IL

Pearl City is an incorporated Stephenson County village, where the 2020 census counted 790 residents. The village was organized as Yellow Creek in 1891 and adopted the name Pearl City in 1892; local tradition connects the new name to pearls found along Yellow Creek by Daniel Ditzler in the late 1880s. Freeport lies about twelve miles east, and Galena about forty miles west.

ATTRTheCatalyst31 / CC0

A school built in 1912 still serves as the village school today, after additions and remodeling over the years. Pearl City Community Unit School District 200 became Stephenson County's first twelve-grade consolidated district in 1949. Rail tracks powered early growth; the last passenger train passed in 1956, freight continued until 1972, and the tracks were removed in 1973. Three churches, a library, fire protection district, Highland Cemetery, and the annual Homecoming keep the village's civic calendar rooted in its early institutions. Pearl City is a railroad-and-creek place with a name that sounds like local folklore because it is.