Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1852.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Abingdon’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Abingdon is more historic than 75% of U.S. towns, #225 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Abingdon’s overall grade.
Few Illinois towns list much on the Register (a typical Illinois town has 0.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Abingdon’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.1 points). Two sources give 1828.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Abingdon’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 4,210 in 1980; 2,951 people lived here in 2020.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Abingdon’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Abingdon, building by building, 1893–1912
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
The city was first settled in 1828. Abingdon was laid out in 1836 and was named after Abingdon, Maryland, the birthplace of its founder, Abraham Davis Swarts. It was incorporated in 1857.
In 1894 William C. Hooker of Abingdon applied for a patent on a common spring-loaded mousetrap. In June of 1907 the patent was awarded to William C. Hooker, William Armstrong, and Knox Mark.
Passages that mention Abingdon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Knox county, Illinois1878 · page 611Read the page →
Read the text
Abingdon Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized at Cherry Grove, in 1835, by Rev. James Stockton, and in 1866 the congregation built a nice edifice in Abingdon, which was dedicated February 3, 1867.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Abingdon, 1828 to 1980
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
In 1828, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Abingdon’s post office opened in 1852, and the census of 1850 counted 210 people here.
How does Abingdon rank for history?
Abingdon is more historic than 75% of U.S. towns, #225 of 768 in Illinois. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Abingdon?
38% of Abingdon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.1 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1954.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (11), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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