Pocahontas, IL

Pocahontas is a village in Burgess Township, Bond County, Illinois. The place began with several names: Hickory Grove as a post-office name, Amity as an early town name, and Pocohontas with an o before the present spelling settled in 1855. The village was incorporated in 1847, and its later name came from Pocahontas Coal, reflecting the coal activity that shaped the community in the early twentieth century.

ATTRPocahontas, Illinois / Public domain

Pocahontas sits in the rural Bond County landscape southwest of Greenville. Its older story includes the Vandalia Railroad, churches, and the settlement pattern around the original village lots. The name changes leave a useful trail through local history: Hickory Grove belongs to the mail route, Amity to the first town plan, and Pocahontas to the incorporated village and coal era. Today the place remains a small Burgess Township center, with roads leading through fields and neighboring communities across southern Illinois. The village's map is modest, but its sequence of names and its connection to coal and rail give it more than one layer.