About Mahomet, Illinois

Mahomet, Illinois is 10 miles NW of Champaign, Illinois and 121 miles S of Chicago, Illinois. It is in Champaign county. The village is part of the Champaign - Urbana metro area. The population of Mahomet is 4,877.

There is some dispute as to the actual year Mahomet was established. The 1878 volume, History of Champaign County maintains that the Village of Mahomet was "laid out in 1832". However, J.S. Lothrop, Champaign County's first historian, sets the year as 1836. He records that this is the year that Daniel T. Porter "entered the land where the Village of Mahomet now stands and at once laid off the village…"J.O. Cunningham in his 1905 history agrees with Lothrop on the year. The original plat still exists in the office of the county recorder, and on it the surveyor, Garret Moore, certifies, "the foregoing as the correct plat of the Town of Middletown as located by Daniel Porter of Champaign County and surveyed by me (on) March 10th, 1836."

Mahomet was originally named Middletown, presumably because it is the half-way point between Bloomington and Danville. Sometime during the 1840s or 1850s it was discovered that there were two Middletowns in Illinois, the other being in Logan County. It is assumed that the name Mahomet was arbitrarily assigned to this Middletown's post office in Washington, D.C.. In his article, "Middletown Becomes Mahomet", Dan McCollum states, "It is likely that the post office was the most important feature of the village, causing that name to be used instead of the local name. Even the first county map, the Bowman map of 1863, also used the name of the post office, in spite of the fact that the name remained Middletown until 1871."

The early settlers chose Mahomet because of its water (Sangamon River) and fuel (timber). The settlers came primarily from Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Before them, Indians roamed the land, including the Kickapoos and Pottawattamies.

Mahomet Chamber of Commerce

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