Chatham Township’s post office opened in 1841, and 1 of its places is on the National Register
More historic than 59% of U.S. towns · #340 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Most of Chatham Township was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. Its Register listing is the Illinois Route 4-North of Auburn. Below: maps from 1924 on and the census since 1860.
Founding year: the first Chatham Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Chatham Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Chatham Township is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #340 of 768 in Illinois. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Chatham Township’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 Chatham Township’s 1.2 sits near the middle of its state (63% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 (±3.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Chatham Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Chatham Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Chatham is a village in Sangamon County, Illinois, United States. It is located 2.8 miles (4.5 km) south of Springfield. The population was 11,500 as of the 2010 census and 14,377 as of 2020. The village lies along the original alignment of historic U.S. Route 66 (Illinois Route 4). Chatham is part of the Springfield, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Its first post office opened in 1841. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 6,978 to 8,399 (+20%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Chatham Township in 1912
Passages that mention Chatham Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Sangamon County1912 · page 1402Read the page →
Read the text
Campbell, in Chatham Township. In 1904 he rented 160 acres on Section 10, Chatham Township, the following year operated 240 acres and in 1906 added 160 acres. For the past four or five years he has operated 400 acres of land on Section 10, putting in each year a large corn crop, to which purpose he devotes from 120 to 250 acres, averaging about 200 acres.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Chatham Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1924Waverly 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 Chatham Township.
On the National Register
1 historic place in Chatham Township
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
The Chatham Township post office opened in 1841, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Chatham Township rank for history?
Chatham Township is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #340 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.
What is on the National Register in Chatham Township?
One place: the Illinois Route 4-North of Auburn (listed 1998).
How old are the homes in Chatham Township?
5% of Chatham Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.0 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1991.
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 (3), the Library of Congress (3), the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
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