Bishop Hill dates to 1846, and 77% of its homes were built before 1940
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them the Bishop Hill Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and a historic district with 35 buildings. Below: 24 old photos and papers, maps from 1940 on, and the census since 1880.
The village was founded in 1846 by Swedish immigrants affiliated with the Pietist movement, led by Eric Jansson. Prior to founding the Bishop Hill Colony, Jansson preached to his followers in Sweden about what he considered to be the abominations of the Lutheran Church and emphasized the doctrine that the faithful were without sin. As Jansson's ideas became more radical, he began to lose support from many of his sympathizers and was forced to leave Sweden in the midst of growing persecution. Jansson had previously sent Olof Olsson, a trusted follower, as an emissary to the United States to find a suitable location where the Janssonists could set up a utopian community centered on their religious beliefs. According to Jansson, this community would become the "New Jerusalem", and their beliefs would soon spread across the world. As a result, 1400 colonists emigrated from Sweden to their n…
Passages that mention Bishop Hill, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Semi-centennial celebration of the settlement of Bishop Hill colony held at Bishop Hill, Illinois, Wednesday and Thursday September 23 and 24, 18961909 · page 40Read the page →
Read the text
Thus was Bishop Hill begun, named after the parish that gave Janson birth. A few log houses and dug-outs were here when more emigrants came.
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
Bishop Hill, 1846 to 1984
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Between 113 and 350 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bishop Hill’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Bishop Hill’s history
What year was Bishop Hill founded?
In 1846, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Bishop Hill’s post office opened in 1848, and the census of 1880 counted 350 people here.
What is on the National Register in Bishop Hill?
One place: the Bishop Hill Historic District (listed 1970).
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 the Library of Congress (24), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 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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★ Landmark
