Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1949 on and the census since 1880.
The Cleveland post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Cleveland’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Cleveland yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Cleveland is a village in Henry County, Illinois, United States. The population was 163 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1869. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 188 to 163 (-13%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Cleveland, cut from the printed page as they were published.
This work was facilitated greatly by the fact that for the last 18 years the writer, in his capacity of naturalist and ecologist for the Cleveland Metropolitan Park Board, and Curator of Education for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, has had occasion to visit constantly, in the course of his work, all parts of the Cleveland Metropolitan Park System.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Beardsley, T. P. Handy, John Walton, Horace Perry, Lyman Kendall and James S. Clark, were authorized to construct a railroad from some point on Lot 413 to the harbor in Cleveland village.* The other end of the line was at a stone quarry close to the corner junction of Warrensville, Newburg and Euclid townships, and then a depot was built under the supervision of Ahaz Merchant, engineer of the road. . The rails were laid
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Nevertheless, the affair was adjusted without any further outbreaks, leaving the Battle of the Bridge to stand as the solitary internecine conflict of which the City of Cleveland can boast. | a
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
3 miles long. It is now largely enclosed within the area bounded by Bagley, Engle, Five Points, and Eastland Roads. The open water of years ago lay between Bagley and Sheldon Roads, the swampy lands reaching northerly to include the eastern edge of the present Cleveland Airport. This was the place to which Oliver Hazard Perry drove for his deer hunts in 1840 (Hunting Expeditions of Oliver Hazard Perry, of Cleveland, 1899), and was formerly a favorite Indian hunting ground. It is now traversed by the various small streams that finally come together to form Abram’s Creek.
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.
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 SurveyWeddings 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 Cleveland. 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 Cleveland.
Between 99 and 338 people in every census since 1880.
11 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cleveland’s Wikipedia page.
Cleveland had its own post office from 1869 to 1911.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Cleveland post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via 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.
