The De Pue post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Selby (1848) and Selby Station (1854), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 323 in 18802020 census: 1,633159 years
How historic is De Pue?
B−
More historic than 54% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first De Pue post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives De Pue’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, De Pue is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of De Pue’s overall grade.
Few Illinois towns list much on the Register (a typical Illinois town has 0.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so De Pue’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.7 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about De Pue’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
DePue, originally called Trenton, was established in 1853 by site owner Benjamin Newell. Its name was changed to Sherman in 1865, De Pue on May 6, 1867, and DePue on July 14, 1894. The present name refers to an early French fur trader by the name of De Pue.
The site had long been used as a port and ice harvesting center on the Illinois River.
In 1905, the Mineral Point Zinc Company started a plant to produce slab zinc for automobiles and appliances in DePue, taking advantage of the nearby coalfields and trained labor force of the LaSalle-Peru zinc processing center. The plant was shortly after acquired by New Jersey Zinc and finally closed in 1990.
Passages that mention De Pue, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The voters and tax-payers of Bureau county, Illinois1877 · page 159Read the page →
Read the text
Trade continued good here until 1860 or '61. Railroads began to ramify the country in all directions, and to carry produce almost as cheaply as the river, and with much more dispatch. Coal was not then mined near De Pue, and had to be transported from Peru. Other causes combined witli these aided the decline in trade here, and at the time mentioned it had ceased, save from the immediate vicinity.
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
De Pue, 1848 to 1920
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The De Pue post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does De Pue rank for history?
De Pue is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in De Pue?
39% of De Pue’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.7 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1947.
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).
From 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
