Johnsburg

History

The area that came to be known as Johnsburg was first settled in 1841, five years after the founding of McHenry County, by immigrant families escaping religious persecution and oppressive social conditions in the Eifel region of Germany, predominantly the Mayen-Koblenz." (The congregation is known today as St. John the Baptist.) They built their first church in 1842, a simple log cabin that also functioned as a school and meeting hall. The first priest to serve this new congregation was delivered there by friendly Native Americans who found him lost in the woods of Wisconsin. The church served the community until 1850, when a larger frame church was built to replace it. Construction on a third church, built in the Gothic style, began in 1867. This church took thirteen years to complete and was the pride of the Johnsburg community until it was destroyed by a fire on February 19, 1900. Many of the early settlers' grave markers were also destroyed by the fire. The present St. John the Baptist church was dedicated in 1902. By 1990, a group of citizens living in this unincorporated area of McHenry County had come to fear that their community, known for over 100 years as Johnsburg, would be swallowed or divided by surrounding municipalities. They turned to their neighbors in Sunnyside, an adjacent village with which they shared a library, schools, and other services, for solutions. (Sunnyside had been incorporated in 1956.) Sunnyside and Johnsburg leaders struck an informal agreement that allowed Sunnyside to annex the surrounding area, thereby tripling its size, but required it to rename itself Johnsburg. After Sunnyside completed the annexation in 1992, the Sunnyside Village Board legally renamed its municipality to Johnsburg.

Geography

According to the 2010 census, Johnsburg has a total area of , of which (or 92.26%) is land and (or 7.74%) is water. Johnsburg lies within the watershed of the Fox river. * Richmond Road As of October 2018, a Pace bus route between the nearby municipalities of Crystal Lake, McHenry, and Fox Lake also serves Johnsburg. The closest rail transit is McHenry station, one of the termini of Metra's Union Pacific Northwest Line.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  22,883
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  22,126
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  21,597
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  21,517
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  21,237
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  17,952
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  17,866
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  17,849

Most recent

• M 2.9 — 2026-07-08
  21 km ENE of Kenilworth, Illinois
• M 3.1 — 2024-07-15
  2 km WNW of Somonauk, Illinois
• M 2.9 — 2015-03-25
  3 km WNW of Lake in the Hills, Illinois
• M 3.2 — 2013-11-04
  1 km SSW of Lyons, Illinois
• M 2.6 — 2013-06-10
  4 km NNE of Virgil, Illinois
• M 3.8 — 2010-02-10
  2 km NW of Lily Lake, Illinois