Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1957 on and the census since 1930.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Four other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Barnett Township’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Barnett Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Barnett Township is one of thirteen townships in DeWitt County, Illinois, US. As of the 2020 census, its population was 396 and it contained 186 housing units.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 406 to 396 (-2%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Barnett Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
brother-in-law, and worked on a farm. Soon after went to work on a saw-mill, lie continued to work around until March, 1856, when he moved to a forty acre tract of land in section thirty-one in Barnett Township, and there he has lived to the present. The land was raw and unimproved, and all of the improvements now on it were put there by Mr. Griner. A view of the place can be seen by reference to another page in this work.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Barnett Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Barnett Township.
Between 396 and 839 people in every census since 1930.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Barnett Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Barnett Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 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.
