US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
On the map
Cotton Hill Township on the map, 1922 to 1998
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cotton Hill Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1922Divernon 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 Cotton Hill Township.
The story so far
Cotton Hill Township, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Cotton Hill Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Cotton Hill, also known as Crow's Mill or Cotton Hill Post Office, was a small unincorporated community on the banks of Sugar Creek in Ball Township, Sangamon County, Illinois, about eight miles south of downtown Springfield. It stood for slightly over a century, from the 1820s until it was razed in the 1930s to make way for Lake Springfield. In 1900 the community had an estimated population of 150, a post office and a train station on the Illinois Central. Just before its demolition in the 1930s the community had a store, a schoolhouse, a blacksmith's shop, and a gas station on Route 66.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 902 to 984 (+9%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Cotton Hill Township in 1912
Passages that mention Cotton Hill Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Sangamon County1912 · page 1115Read the page →
Read the text
Albert R. Cary attended the country schools of Cotton Hill Township and afterwards engaged in farming, which occupation he has since followed. He has spent his entire life in his native county, living first in Rochester and later in Cotton Hill Township, and has spent but little time outside the county, having made a trip to Ohio and another to Kansas. He is a
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Sangamon County1912 · page 1696Read the page →
Read the text
attended school during the winter months and most of his education was received in the old Third Ward School. Later he engaged in farming in Cotton Hill Township, near Grove City, and also near New City. He has forty acres of good farm land on Section 3 of Cotton Hill Township, where he has lived the past sixteen years, and has met with gratifying success in
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
Cotton Hill Township, 1875 to 1922
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
