The Buffalo Hart Township post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Buffalo Hart (1850) and Buffalo Hart (1873), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 178176 years
Founding year: the first Buffalo Hart Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Buffalo Hart Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds
Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Buffalo Hart
1850–1854
Buffalo Hart
1873–1962
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Buffalo Hart
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Buffalo Hart Township
Buffalo GroveCassConstant
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The story so far
Buffalo Hart Township, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Buffalo Hart Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Buffalo Hart is an unincorporated community in northern Sangamon County in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is the population center of Buffalo Hart Township. Buffalo Hart was originally built in the 19th century, first as a frontier settlement based on a prairie grove, and then as a rural station stop on the Gilman, Clinton and Springfield Railroad twelve miles northeast of Springfield, Illinois, the state capital. Farmers would bring fresh vegetables and milk to the now-vanished railroad station for transportation into nearby cities. The railroad's successor-in-interest, the Canadian National, continues to operate a right-of-way that passes through Buffalo Hart. A small grove of trees about…
Its first post office opened in 1850. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 173 to 178 (+3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Buffalo Hart Township in 1912
Passages that mention Buffalo Hart Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Sangamon County1912 · page 1565Read the page →
Read the text
a considerable amount of land in Sangamon County since his grandfather made his first entry from the Government and began farming on a large tract in Buffalo Hart Township. On January 22, 1865, Mr. Ridgeway enlisted in an Illinois regiment, and was discharged on April 12th of the same year, having been stationed at Camp Butler.
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
Buffalo Hart Township, 1850 to 1962
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Buffalo Hart Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1954Mechanicsburg 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 Buffalo Hart Township.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
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.
