Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 62% of U.S. towns · #310 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Below: maps from 1932 on and old-book passages.
The Chemung Township post office opened in 1845, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Chemung (1845), Big Foot Prairie (1848) and State Line (1849), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 62% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Chemung Township is more historic than 62% of U.S. towns, #310 of 768 in Illinois. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Chemung Township’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.
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 →
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 Chemung Township’s history is told.
Four other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Chemung Township.
A post office called Chemung was established in 1845, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1943. The name Chemung is comes from the word in the Seneca language meaning "big horn" after a large horned fossil was discovered in a nearby river.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Chemung Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
CITY OF HARVARD This city is sixty-three miles northwest of Chicago, on the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, and is beautifully situated in section 35 of Chemung Township. It was platted November 25, 1856 by Amos Page, proprietor! Abraham Carmack and Jacob A. Davis were the original owners of the town site of Harvard, having obtained it from the government in 1845. They sold it to Gilbert Brainard, and after his death the land was secured by a company of railroad men, who laid out the town
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In Chemung Township the first school was taught in the village of Chemung about INK). In 1880 the number of persons of school age in the township was UTS, or ninety more than any township within the county. It paid at that date next to the highesl wages for teachers of any of the townships. The school property of seven schoolhouses was then valued at $16,500. The first school in Harvard was taught in 1859; -I. E. Young was the first principal, assisted by .Miss Mary Ballon.
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 Chemung Township. 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 Chemung Township.
Nobody well known was born in Chemung Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Chemung Township post office opened in 1845, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Chemung Township is more historic than 62% of U.S. towns, #310 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.
20% of Chemung Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.1 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1978.
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).
From Wikipedia, 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.
