Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Cambridge Township

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Cambridge Township

Cambridge Township’s post office opened in 1844, and 50% of its homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register. Below: old-book passages.

1844first post office
1on the National Register
50%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Kepper66 · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Cambridge Township began

When was Cambridge Township founded?

1844

The Cambridge Township post office opened in 1844, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, East Cambridge (1853) and Ulah (1868), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 2,405182 years
Founding year: the first Cambridge Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Cambridge Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Cambridge Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Cambridge Township’s homes were built before 1940.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Cambridge Township, and 1 old place names are still on the map.Deep rootsA post office since 1844: 182 years of Cambridge Township.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Cambridge Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cambridge Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Cambridge Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Cambridge Township.

Read it all →

After European-American settlement in this area and before 1843, Rev. Ithamar Pillsbury owned a large plot of land that was later developed as the town of Cambridge. He was well known among the numerous Yankee settlers (migrants from New England and upstate New York, who were largely descended from the English colonists in New England) who were migrating to Henry County at that time. Reverend Pillsbury deeded a large portion of his land to the town council for use as a town plot. Lots were sold to incoming migrants and on June 9, 1843 (after some quarreling among the town founders about how to finance it) construction began on the town.

ChaptersLinks to Bishop Hill

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

East Cambridge
1853–1868
Ulah
1868–1924
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Ulah
Gone or out of use
Cambridge Union SchoolschoolEast Cambridge SchoolschoolEdwards SchoolschoolExcelsior SchoolschoolMiddle District SchoolschoolPleasant Hill SchoolschoolPleasant Valley Schoolschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Cambridge Township
Mc NayTalbot

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From the old history books

What they wrote about Cambridge Township in 1885

Passages that mention Cambridge Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.

for the Old Settlers'meeting, August, 1877, and may be relied upon as entirely authentic : Previous to the year 1840, what is now known as Cambridge Township had no history save that which is common to the whole West while slumbering in the lap of nature. In 1835, when the prospecting party, headed…
Portrait and biographical album of Henry County, Illinois1885 · page 771Read the page →
Read the text

for the Old Settlers'meeting, August, 1877, and may be relied upon as entirely authentic : Previous to the year 1840, what is now known as Cambridge Township had no history save that which is common to the whole West while slumbering in the lap of nature. In 1835, when the prospecting party, headed by Ithamar Pillsbury, came this way in search of land on which to locate

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
with Mr. H. G. Griffin, of Andover Township (see sketch), until the fall of 1855, when he began to farm on his own account. In 1856 he purchased 160 acres on section 27, of Cambridge Township, where he lived for one year. He then purchased a quarter of a section in Andover Township, and worked it f…
Portrait and biographical album of Henry County, Illinois1885 · page 275Read the page →
Read the text

with Mr. H. G. Griffin, of Andover Township (see sketch), until the fall of 1855, when he began to farm on his own account. In 1856 he purchased 160 acres on section 27, of Cambridge Township, where he lived for one year. He then purchased a quarter of a section in Andover Township, and worked it from 1858 to 1867, when he came to his present home, consisting of T96 acres, all well improved, 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.

Timeline

Cambridge Township, 1853 to 1924

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1853Post officeThe East Cambridge post office opens
  3. 1868Post officeThe East Cambridge post office closes
  4. 1868Post officeThe Ulah post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1924Post officeThe Ulah post office closes
By decade

Cambridge Township, decade by decade

Today4 recent
Wind Farm Near2013Wind Farm NearCambridge, Illinois2012Cambridge, IllinoisHenry County Courthouse2011Henry County CourthouseILMap-doton-Cambridge2006ILMap-doton-Cambridge
On the National Register

1 historic place in Cambridge Township

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Andover Township3 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBurns TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMunson TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Cambridge Township’s history

What year was Cambridge Township founded?

The Cambridge Township post office opened in 1844, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Wikimedia Commons (4), 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.