The Clarion Township post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Perkins Grove (1842) and Clarion (1862), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 410164 years
Founding year: the first Clarion Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Clarion 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 Clarion Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Clarion Township is one of twenty-five townships in Bureau County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 410 and it contained 177 housing units.
Its first post office opened in 1862. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 421 to 410 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
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.
Perkins Grove
1842–1856
Clarion
1862–1865
18401930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
ClarionWendel
Gone or out of use
Basswood Corner SchoolschoolBauer SchoolschoolKeutzer AirportairportLloyd SchoolschoolMarriott SchoolschoolPerkins Grove Churchchurch
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Clarion Township
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 Clarion Township in 1877
Passages that mention Clarion Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The voters and tax-payers of Bureau county, Illinois1877 · page 137Read the page →
Read the text
In Clarion Township, east and northeast of Lamoille, are three German churches. The oldest is the German Evangelical, which was organized about 1850. In 1843, Mr. John Fauble settled in this locality, and for many years his church was house and home, to those professing this faith, who desired to find new homes in the West. In 1846, services were held in his house by the Rev. S. A. Tobias, who remained a short time. In 1848, the place of meeting was changed to the house of Mr. Jacob Betz, where services were held for five years. A class was
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
Clarion Township, 1842 to 1952
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Clarion Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1952Mendota 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 Clarion Township.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
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 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.
