Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1957 on and old-book passages.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Belle Prairie Township’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Belle Prairie Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Belle Prairie Township is located in Livingston County, Illinois in the United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 142 and it contained 51 housing units.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 135 to 142 (+5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Belle Prairie Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
takes its name, and which extends from Belle Prairie into Avoca Township, is one of the earliest settled portions of Livingston County. Indeed, the very first Settlement made in the county was at the head of tliis grove, as noted in the history of Belle Prairie Township, and, a few months later, white men were found in that portion of the timber lying in Avoca ; while not until the Fall of 1831 was there a settlement made in what is now Indian Grove Township.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In 1858, the first temple of learning was bmlt in Belle Prairie Township. A few of the neighbors resolved to have a school house, and, upon consultation with carpenters and builders, found that it would cost more than they could well afford to pay. Finally. Ben. Walton took the contract and proceeded! at once to put up the building. He hauled the material from Pontiac, took what pav he could get. and eventually succeeded in collecting a suflBcient amount to bring down his own quota to a fair proportion with that of his neighbors. The town is well supplicl with good, substantial school houses at convenient distances
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 Belle Prairie 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 Belle Prairie Township.
Nobody well known was born in Belle Prairie Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Potosi, 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).
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, 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.
