Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1856.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Bushnell’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bushnell is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #355 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Bushnell’s overall grade.
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 Bushnell’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.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.4 points). Two sources give 1854.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 →
What stands out about Bushnell’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 3,811 in 1980; 2,718 people lived here in 2020.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bushnell’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Bushnell, building by building, 1886–1912
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
The town was founded in 1854 when the Northern Cross Railroad built a line through the area. Nehemiah Bushnell was the president of the railroad, and townspeople honored him by naming their community after him. The railroad later became part of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, which continues to operate through Bushnell under the name Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Bushnell was also served by the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway, now the Keokuk Junction Railway. Amtrak trains pass through the city but do not stop.
Passages that mention Bushnell, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of McDonough County, Illinois, together with sketches of the towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history1885 · page 824Read the page →
Read the text
Bushnell, at that time president of the Northern Cross railroad, the name by which the present Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad was then known.
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
Bushnell, 1854 to 1980
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Bushnell Baptist ChapelchurchDutch Reformed ChurchchurchFirst Church of GodchurchGerman Methodist Episcopal ChurchchurchWard Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Bushnell
Bushnell
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Bushnell’s history
What year was Bushnell founded?
In 1854, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Bushnell’s post office opened in 1856, and the census of 1870 counted 2,003 people here.
How does Bushnell rank for history?
Bushnell is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #355 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.
How old are the homes in Bushnell?
46% of Bushnell’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.4 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1944.
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 Wikimedia Commons (6), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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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