Daniel Morton came to the area in 1846 and built the first log cabin. Gilbert Morton was the first child born here that year to Daniel and his wife Sarah. The following year a schoolhouse was built on the Morton property. The land the Mortons found was a swampy marsh to the north with higher ground to the south. Mud Creek meandered through the area and Green River paralleled the current Interstate 80 to the north.
Passages that mention Annawan, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Henry County, Illinois1910 · page 624Read the page →
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Thomas Hay, the father of F. M. Hay, grew to manhood upon the homestead in Jefferson county, Indiana, and there was married to Miss Sarah Maiden. In 1854 he came to Annawan on a visit, and despite the fact that it was the year of the great snow storm he was so favorably impressed with the country that in 1855 he returned, bringing his family with him, and bought some land on section 13, Annawan township. Thereon he lived the rest of his life, save for two years he spent in the village of Annawan, and his active years were busily occupied with agricultural pursuits, wherefrom he derived a gratifying success.
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The history of Henry County, Illinois1877 · page 527Read the page →
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The Church of the United Brethren in Christ. This church, now located three miles south of Annawan, at Fairview Chapel, was organized in the village of Annawan in May, 1854, by Almond Baker and others, with a total membership of eight persons. The first meetings were held in private houses and in unfinished or unoccupied buildings, and not until 1858 did the society build a church, which was dedicated by Rev, Wm.
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History of Henry County, Illinois1910 · page 588Read the page →
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the rank of corporal. When he left the army he took up his residence in Stark county, Illinois, where he began to serve an apprenticeship as a painter and decorator. A year and a half later he was able to take contracts, and in 1870 he came to Henry county, locating in the village of Annawan, where he has since resided and where he is well known, for he was police magistrate for about twenty-two years and in 1880 took the census of the township. He is also a notary public.
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Portrait and biographical album of Henry County, Illinois1885 · page 452Read the page →
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the public works on that part of the Canal, he left and came to Henry County. He arrived here in 1850 and entered 160 acres of land where the village of Annawan now stands. He sold this to Charles Atkinson, who laid off the town . Mr. Minard was one of the early settlers in this part of the country, and of course suffered many of the inconveniences and hardships that befall the early settler in a new
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Annawan, 1853 to 1929
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (4), the Library of Congress (7), Wikidata (1), Wikipedia, 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 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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