Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Old Morrison Mill. Below: maps from 1958 on and the census since 1930.
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 Burnt Prairie’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Burnt Prairie yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Burnt Prairie (formerly known as Liberty) is a village in White County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Burnt Prairie had a population of 36.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 52 to 36 (-31%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Burnt Prairie, cut from the printed page as they were published.
twenty years of age, in 1857, he came with his mother and sisters to America, landed in New York City after forty-two days at sea, and soon after came to White County, and joined his uncles in Burnt Prairie Township; followed farming and working at the coop¬ er’s trade until August, 1862, when he enlisted in Company F, Eighty-seventh Illinois Mounted Infantry Volunteers, and remained in the service till the close of the war. He then came back to Burnt Prairie. In 1865 he bought a farm in this township. He was
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
two years after mother and family returned to White County, Ill., and settled with her parents in Burnt Prairie Township, where she died about 1831. James W. remained on the farm with his grandfather, attending school winters, until seventeen, when he began to work for himself. lie farmed in Burnt Prairie Township with Noah Staley, one of the oldest settlers of Burnt Prairie; worked with him one season, and then wcnt]with a friend, Stephen Williams, to Iowa. Mr. Whetstone hired out here on a farm and
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.
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 Burnt Prairie. 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 Burnt Prairie.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Between 36 and 202 people in every census since 1930.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Burnt Prairie’s Wikipedia page.
One place: the Old Morrison Mill (listed 1984).
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 Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.
