Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 36% of U.S. towns · #498 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Below: maps from 1935 on and old-book passages.
The Bourbon Township post office opened in 1853, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Bourbon (1853) and Chesterville (1873), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 36% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bourbon Township is more historic than 36% of U.S. towns, #498 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
Few Illinois towns list much on the Register (a typical Illinois town has 0.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Bourbon Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
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 Bourbon Township’s history is told.
Two 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bourbon Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Bourbon is an unincorporated community in Douglas County, Illinois, United States. Bourbon is 5.5 miles (8.9 km) northwest of Arcola.
Its first post office opened in 1853. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 4,124 in 2010, 4,099 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Bourbon Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Bourbon Township consists of forty-two sections of land in the southwest part of the county, equal to about the same number of square miles, and 27,175 acres. Amongst the first settlers were Geo.
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.
Weddings 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 Bourbon 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 Bourbon Township.
Nobody well known was born in Bourbon Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Bourbon Township post office opened in 1853, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Bourbon Township is more historic than 36% of U.S. towns, #498 of 768 in Illinois. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
16% of Bourbon Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1975.
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).
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.
