Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Creston

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Creston

Creston’s post office opened in 1869, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1934 on and the census since 1880.

1869first post office
0on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Creston began

When was Creston founded?

1869

The Creston post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Dement Station (1854), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 364 in 18802020 census: 627157 years
Founding year: the first Creston post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Creston’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 Creston are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Creston’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Creston’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
The story

How Creston came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Creston.

Read it all →

Creston was named for its supposed location on the highest point of land between Chicago and the Mississippi River.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Creston in 1878

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

Schools. — The first school-house in Creston was a frame building 26 by 32 feet in size, which was built by B. R. Pierce, in 1857. In this house W. W. Washburne first taught. School was held in that building until 1869, when the present beautiful and substantial school-house was erected at a cost o…
The history of Ogle County, Illinois, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics ... history of the Northwest, his1878Read the page →
Read the text

Schools. — The first school-house in Creston was a frame building 26 by 32 feet in size, which was built by B. R. Pierce, in 1857. In this house W. W. Washburne first taught. School was held in that building until 1869, when the present beautiful and substantial school-house was erected at a cost of $10,000.

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

Creston, 1854 to 1934

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1854Post officeThe Dement Station post office opens
  3. 1869Post officeThe Dement Station post office closes
  4. 1869Post officeThe Creston post office opens
  5. 1876Born hereKnute Hill is born here
  6. 20th century
  7. 1934On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Creston, decade by decade

Today1 recent
Winter accentuates the bleakness of this abandoned barn scene near Creston, Illinois2020Winter accentuates the bleakness of this abandoned ba…
On the map

Creston on the map, 1934 to 1980

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Creston. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Creston on the 1934 USGS mapCreston on the 1971 USGS mapCreston on the 1980 USGS map1934De Kalb 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 Creston.

People over time

Creston, census by census

010020030040050060070018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 662

Between 284 and 662 people in every census since 1880.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Creston’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Creston’s post office has been open since 1869. Another post office, Dement Station, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Dement Station
1854–1869
Creston
1869–today
18501940today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Creston’s history

What year was Creston founded?

The Creston post office opened in 1869, 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 the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.