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History · Bath Township

Bath Township’s post office opened in 1834, and 28% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1930 on and the census since 1850.

1834first post office
0on the National Register
28%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Bath Township began

When was Bath Township founded?

1834

The Bath Township post office opened in 1834, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Matanzas (1858), Moscow (1858) and Saidora (1868), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 336 in 18502020 census: 737192 years
Founding year: the first Bath Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Bath Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Bath Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Bath Township, and 6 old place names are still on the map.Boom and bustPeaked at 513 in 1860; 279 people lived here in 2020.Deep rootsA post office since 1834: 192 years of Bath Township.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bath Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bath Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Matanzas
1858–1861
Moscow
1858–1860
Saidora
1868–1936
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
MatanzasMatanzas BeachMoscowSaidoraWhite CityWolf Lake
Gone or out of use
Adkins Landing StripairportAnderson SchoolschoolBell Landing FieldairportJordan SchoolschoolMatanzas SchoolschoolPatterson SchoolschoolUnion SchoolschoolWhite Hall Schoolschool
4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Bath Township
Bethel BaptistMount ZionMount ZionSaint Johns

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

People over time

Bath Township, census by census

01002003004005001850190019502000Peak: 513

Peaked at 513 in 1860; 279 people lived here in 2020.

18 censuses, 1850–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bath Township’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Bath Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bath Township.

Read it all →

The area was first settled in 1828 by John Stewart and John Gillespie from the state of Kentucky. Future 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, surveyed the land on November 1, 1836. The settlement's name was most likely borrowed from another United States place named in turn after Bath, England, such as Bath, Ohio or Bath, New York. Alternatively, a popular story attributes the name to Lincoln quipping that the town's location on the Illinois River would be a nice place for a bath. Bath also became the name of the township when it was formed in 1861.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Bath Township, 1858 to 1936

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1858Post officeThe Matanzas post office opens
  3. 1858Post officeThe Moscow post office opens
  4. 1860Post officeThe Moscow post office closes
  5. 1860CensusPopulation peaks at 513
  6. 1861Post officeThe Matanzas post office closes
  7. 1868Post officeThe Saidora post office opens
  8. 20th century
  9. 1930On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  10. 1936Post officeThe Saidora post office closes
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Bath Township on the map, 1930 to 1981

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bath Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Bath Township on the 1930 USGS mapBath Township on the 1981 USGS map1930Chandlerville sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bath Township.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Chandlerville TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townKerton TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townHickory TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townKilbourne TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLynchburg TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townSangamon Valley TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townHavana Township2 historic placesA−

Questions about Bath Township’s history

What year was Bath Township founded?

The Bath Township post office opened in 1834, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.