Founding year: the first Chillicothe Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Chillicothe Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Chillicothe Township is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns, #195 of 768 in Illinois. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Chillicothe 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 Chillicothe Township’s 1.2 sits near the middle of its state (64% 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 B+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.9 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 Chillicothe Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The name Chillicothe comes from the name of the Chalahgawtha sect of the Shawnee nation.
Along with Peoria, Chillicothe grew due to river traffic and quickly became a stop for barge and railroad traffic traveling to and from Chicago and St. Louis.
In the late 1800s, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway was building its mainline from Chicago to Kansas City and selected Chillicothe as its crossing point of the Illinois River. The railroad quickly became an establishment in Chillicothe as a crew change point and a notable stop in Central Illinois. Chillicothe today still remains a key point on the Southern Transcon route between Chicago and Los Angeles with high frequency intermodal freight trains moving through daily.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Chillicothe Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1893Metamora 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 Chillicothe Township.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewPublic Schools, 1911
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Chillicothe Township’s page.
The Chillicothe Township post office opened in 1841, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Chillicothe Township rank for history?
Chillicothe Township is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns, #195 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 Chillicothe Township?
19% of Chillicothe Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.9 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1964.
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 (4), the Library of Congress (20), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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