Hanover Township Careers in Bartlett, IL

Hanover was organized as a Township on April 2, 1850, primarily to provide government closer to home than the county seat in Chicago. Land was divided like a checkerboard into six mile squares called townships, each township being roughly 36 square miles. Hanover's location in the checkerboard is designated as Township 411 North, Range 9 East of the Third Principal Meridian - the farthest west of the old "country Towns" of Cook County. The rural government was concerned with collecting the tax, stray animals, control of weeds, maintenance of roads. After spring and fall rains, roads were apt to become long black ditches of mud, so this was quite a chore. The Clerk organized the machinery for elections. Another function, "poor relief" was minimal. Rural days in Hanover Township ended with the westward spread of the Chicago metropolitan area. It was the rich land that beckoned farmers to this vicinity. That land has now been taken over by subdivisions, shopping centers, and industrial de