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History · Cypress

Cypress’ post office opened in 1895, and 13% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1920 on and the census since 1910.

1895first post office
0on the National Register
13%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0
Quick answers

How Cypress began

When was Cypress founded?

1895

The Cypress post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 311 in 19102020 census: 217131 years
Founding year: the first Cypress post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Cypress’ 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 Cypress are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 438 in 1920; 217 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Cypress’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cypress’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
People over time

Cypress, census by census

0100200300400192019401960198020002020Peak: 438

Peaked at 438 in 1920; 217 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

The story

How Cypress came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Cypress.

Read it all →

Cypress was established in the late 1890s as a stop along the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad, a Class I railroad. A post office which had been operating at Gray's Mill (east of modern Cypress) was moved to the new location, a former bank. The village's name is likely a reference to the cypress trees that grow in abundance in the Cache River basin. Cypress Grade School was built in 1917, and was damaged by a tornado on April 28, 2002. Around four years later, the current school was finished.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Cypress in 1925

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

There are eleven Missionary Baptist Churches in the county at the present time. There could be no data had from Cypress, Ozark or Cedar Creek. This church was organized in 1836, and is, no doubt, the oldest Baptist church in the county. The church directory gives W. K.
A history of Johnson County, Illinois1925 · page 116Read the page →
Read the text

There are eleven Missionary Baptist Churches in the county at the present time. There could be no data had from Cypress, Ozark or Cedar Creek. This church was organized in 1836, and is, no doubt, the oldest Baptist church in the county. The church directory gives W. K.

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

Cypress, 1895 to 1920

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1895Post officeThe Cypress post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1920On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 438
By decade

Cypress, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Cypress-post-office-sign-il2017Cypress-post-office-sign-ilCypress-post-office-il2017Cypress-post-office-ilCypress-park-il2017Cypress-park-ilCypress-from-Railroad-St-il2017Cypress-from-Railroad-St-ilCypress-Village-Hall-il2017Cypress-Village-Hall-ilCypress-Chuckwagon-Saloon-il2017Cypress-Chuckwagon-Saloon-il
On the map

Cypress on the map, 1920 to 1966

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

Cypress on the 1920 USGS mapCypress on the 1966 USGS map1920Dongola 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 Cypress.

Famous people

Famous people close to Cypress

Nobody well known was born in Cypress itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
D
D. R. FulkersonAmerican mathematician · b. 1924
L
Levi CaseyAmerican triple jumper · b. 1904
Katherine D. TillmanAmerican writer · b. 1870
J
Jo Sullivan LoesserAmerican actress and singer · b. 1927
Raymond WellsAmerican film director and actor · b. 1880
F
Frank WillardAmerican cartoonist · b. 1893

Questions about Cypress’ history

What year was Cypress founded?

The Cypress post office opened in 1895, 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 →
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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 (6), Wikipedia, 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.