Bourbonais

Overview

Coal under the grove

Bourbonais stood on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad between Wyanet and Buda, in Bourbonnais' Grove, which carried the name of a French and Native American trader the early settlers called Bulbona. In March 1864 John H. Robinson, a farmer, began sinking a coal shaft on his land there, and that July he laid out a village. The railroad put in a switch the next year, and the village got a post office under a different name, Lovejoy.

The 1885 county history says Robinson was a farmer and not a miner and didn't make the mine pay, but some of his partners were experienced miners and made money. Six shafts were sunk in all, about 75 feet down to a seam about five feet thick, and the main trouble was water. One store served the village, passing through several owners before it closed in 1877. A county directory that year called Bourbonnais a small place whose coal was almost its whole trade, with few houses. The post office closed about 1876 and the mines in the fall of 1881.

A Bureau County Genealogical Society entry, read out on air by WORLD Radio in 2021, says the plat was vacated in 1926. When WORLD's reporters found the site that June, it was a private farm of rolling hills and oak groves beside the railroad, and nothing of the town was left but the lie of the land.

Timeline

From Bulbona's grove to farmland

1. About 1820A French and Native American trader the settlers called Bulbona, or Bourbonnais, settles at the grove that takes his name. The 1906 county history puts his cabin about two miles south of Wyanet.
2. Mar 1864Farmer John H. Robinson starts sinking a coal shaft on his land.
3. Jul 1864Robinson lays out the village of Bourbonnais beside the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, in Bourbonnais' Grove.
4. 1865The railroad builds a switch at the village. Its post office is called Lovejoy.
5. 1864–1881Six shafts are sunk in the area, about 75 feet down to a coal seam about five feet thick. Water in the workings is the main trouble.
6. Mar 5, 1867The General Assembly changes the name of the town of Bourbonais, in Bureau County, to Lovejoy.
7. 1874–1877J. H. Morgan & Co. runs the village's only store, the last of several owners. It closes in 1877.
8. About 1876The post office is discontinued.
9. 1877A county directory describes a small place with an excellent coal bank and few houses.
10. Fall 1881Mining stops.
11. 1926The plat is vacated, according to a Bureau County Genealogical Society entry read out by WORLD in 2021.
12. Jun 2021WORLD reporters find a private farm, oak groves and the railroad, and nothing of the town but the lie of the land.

Names

Bourbonais, Bourbonnais and Lovejoy

The sources spell the village three ways. The 1877 directory and the 1885 county history write Bourbonnais, with two n's; the 1867 act of the General Assembly, the USGS place-name record and Wikipedia write Bourbonais, with one. It is not the village of Bourbonnais in Kankakee County, in eastern Illinois, which WORLD's reporters also took care to tell apart.

The county histories call the trader behind the name Bulbona, the settlers' version of Bourbonnais. They describe him as of mixed French and Native American descent, married to a Native American woman, and settled at Bulbona Grove about 1820, which makes him one of the first settlers in what became Bureau County. The 1906 county history puts his cabin about two miles south of Wyanet. The 1877 directory places the village in Bourbonnais' Grove.

The post office was Lovejoy, and so, legally, was the town. An act of the General Assembly approved on March 5, 1867 changed the name of the town of Bourbonais, in Bureau County, to Lovejoy, as WORLD's reporters said it had. Neither the act nor the 1885 history says why. The reporters guessed it honored Owen Lovejoy, the Princeton abolitionist and congressman who died in 1864; we found no record of that.

What's left

Woods, fields and the railroad

In June 2021 WORLD found no buildings of the town standing. The family who bought the 17-acre farm in 1996 told the reporters that the old post office is part of their farmhouse, and that a shelf on the wall marks where the mailbags hung. We haven't been able to confirm that. Visitors had been stopping by for years, and the reporters asked permission before walking down to the site.

None of the USGS sheets in the historic maps below names the village. The 1921 Buda sheet shows the Burlington line crossing section 25, a pond in the woods north of the tracks, Pleasant Grove School just south of them and scattered buildings. The 1958 regional sheet shows only the CB&Q running between Buda and Wyanet. The 1983 Buda sheet shows the railroad, the pond, the woods and a few buildings south of the tracks. Today's topo has the same pond and woods, with County Road 1150 East running north to the railroad and stopping there.

• No town buildings reported (2021)
• A farmhouse said by its owners to include the old post office
• Oak woods and a pond north of the tracks
• The Burlington railroad line

Historic maps

Bourbonais on USGS maps, 1921–1983

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19211:62,50019581:250,00019831:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Princeton is the nearest city, about 25 minutes east by US 6 through Wyanet. From Peoria the drive runs north on IL 40 through Bradford and Buda. Both routes end where County Road 1150 East stops at the railroad, beside farm buildings. The land around it was a private farm in 2021, so treat this as a drive past the site. The routes are computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

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Visitor reports

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Nearby

Other sites near Bourbonais

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Illinois index.

• Morse7.8 mi S · Stark
• Lone Tree Corners13.5 mi SE · Bureau
• Marquette19.4 mi E · Bureau
• Caledonia25.3 mi SE · Putnam
• Evans34.7 mi SE · Marshall
• Appleton39.3 mi SW · Knox
• Midway54.7 mi SW · Fulton
• Bybee59.0 mi SW · Fulton

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Bourbonais, Illinois", revision of August 26, 2026: former settlement in Concord Township on the Burlington line southwest of Wyanet and northeast of Buda, platted 1864, GNIS elevation, coordinates. Its note on the name is marked citation needed; the county histories below support it.
2. H. C. Bradsby, History of Bureau County, Illinois (1885), p. 434 and biographies: Robinson's shaft of March 1864, the platting, the switch, the Lovejoy post office and its closing about 1876, six shafts, depth and seam, water, the end of mining in fall 1881, the store and its owners to 1877; also Bulbona (Bourbonnais) as an early settler about 1820.
3. The Voters and Tax-payers of Bureau County, Illinois (1877): Bourbonnais laid out by John Robinson in July 1864 on the C.B.&Q. below Wyanet, in Bourbonnais' Grove, an excellent coal bank and few houses.
4. Past and Present of Bureau County, Illinois (1906): Bulbona's trading cabin about two miles south of Wyanet.
5. Paul Butler with Caleb Bailey, "Abandoned history", WORLD Radio, June 24, 2021, read from the Internet Archive copy of September 19, 2021 (the live page refused our requests): the genealogical society entry (section 25, Concord Township, vacated 1926), the private farm bought in 1996, the owners' account of the post office in their farmhouse, permission to visit, nothing left of the town, the active railroad, and the reporters' notes on Owen Lovejoy.
6. Laws of the State of Illinois, 1867, p. 247: the act changing the name of the town of Bourbonais, in Bureau County, to Lovejoy, approved March 5, 1867.
7. USGS GNIS feature 1822630, "Bourbonais (historical)", populated place, Bureau County, read through the USGS geonames map service, October 2026: coordinates. Section, township and range: BLM PLSS service at those coordinates.
8. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• The 1921 USGS Buda sheet: the Burlington line through section 25, Pleasant Grove School south of the tracks and a pond in the woods to the north: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Buda 1921, 1:62,500; Aurora 1958, 1:250,000; Buda 1983, 1:24,000.