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History · Cordova

Cordova’s post office opened in 1839, and 18% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: old-book passages.

1839first post office
0on the National Register
18%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Westkentuckygenealogy · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Cordova began

When was Cordova founded?

1839

The Cordova post office opened in 1839, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 671187 years
Founding year: the first Cordova post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Cordova’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Cordova are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1839: 187 years of Cordova.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Cordova’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cordova’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Timeline

Cordova, 1839 to 1882

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1839Post officeThe Cordova post office opens
  3. 1859Born hereLen Stockwell is born here
  4. 1882Born hereClyde Howard Tavenner is born here
The story so far

Cordova, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Cordova yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Cordova is a village in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. Cordova population was 671 at the time of the 2020 census, down from 672 at the 2010 census.

Its first post office opened in 1839. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 672 in 2010, 671 in 2020.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Cordova in 1908

Passages that mention Cordova, cut from the printed page as they were published.

This village .situated principally in the township of Cordova, with a very small portion in the township of Port Byron, lies
Historic Rock Island County1908 · page 94Read the page →
Read the text

This village .situated principally in the township of Cordova, with a very small portion in the township of Port Byron, lies

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
sculptured bedrock and drifted cairn has no more perfect record than its old shore line marked high along its bluffs. The town of Cordova is built almost entirely upon a terrace which was once the bed of the river. This terrace is fifty feet above the present low water mark of the Mississippi. This…
Historic Rock Island County1908 · page 65Read the page →
Read the text

sculptured bedrock and drifted cairn has no more perfect record than its old shore line marked high along its bluffs. The town of Cordova is built almost entirely upon a terrace which was once the bed of the river. This terrace is fifty feet above the present low water mark of the Mississippi. This reminder and evidence of the ancient river's majesty can be

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.

By decade

Cordova, decade by decade

Today4 recent
A wooden roadside advertising sign outside Codova, Illinois, is so old, its left figures have lost their names, and man…2019A wooden roadside advertising sign outside Codova, Il…Cordova School12013Cordova School1Aunt E. Bryan Cordova School2013Aunt E. Bryan Cordova SchoolCordova, Illinois2009Cordova, Illinois
Famous people

2 famous people were born in Cordova

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Clyde Howard TavennerAmerican politician · b. 1882
L
Len StockwellAmerican baseball player · b. 1859
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Cordova TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townPort Byron Township1 historic placeA

Questions about Cordova’s history

What year was Cordova founded?

The Cordova post office opened in 1839, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Wikimedia Commons (3), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.