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History · East Bend Township

41% of East Bend Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1928 on and the census since 1860.

0on the National Register
41%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Dual Freq · CC BY 2.5

What stands out about East Bend Township’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 East Bend Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s East Bend Township, and 2 old place names are still on the map.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,122 in 1890; 623 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start East Bend Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how East Bend Township’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
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Houstonville
1841–1878
Tomlinson Station
1877–1883
Dewey
1878–today
Tomlinson
1883–1910
18401930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
DeweyTomlinson
Gone or out of use
Houstonville Post Officepost office
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside East Bend Township
BeekmanEast Bend Memorial Gardens

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

People over time

East Bend Township, census by census

02004006008001,0001,200190019502000Peak: 1,122

Peaked at 1,122 in 1890; 623 people lived here in 2020.

17 censuses, 1860–2020.

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

The story

How East Bend Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of East Bend Township.

Read it all →

East Bend Township, a civil township, was created in 1860, after Champaign County adopted the township form of government, and originally comprised two survey townships. The area had previously been known as Sodom, after an early post office, and the earliest European American settlers arrived in the late 1830s and early 1840s. The western half of East Bend Township was set off in 1869 to create Brown Township.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

East Bend Township, 1841 to 1928

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1841Post officeThe Houstonville post office opens
  3. 1877Post officeThe Tomlinson Station post office opens
  4. 1878Post officeThe Houstonville post office closes
  5. 1878Post officeThe Dewey post office opens
  6. 1883Post officeThe Tomlinson Station post office closes
  7. 1890CensusPopulation peaks at 1,122
  8. 20th century
  9. 1928On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

East Bend Township on the map, 1928 to 1983

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

East Bend Township on the 1928 USGS mapEast Bend Township on the 1957 USGS mapEast Bend Township on the 1983 USGS map1928Gibson City 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 East Bend Township.

Famous people

Famous people close to East Bend Township

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

See all →
Frances McDormandAmerican actress · b. 1957
D
Don BransonRacecar driver · b. 1920
John Arthur LoveAmerican politician · b. 1916
Darren W. McDewUnited States Air Force general and board membe… · b. 1960
Leslie C. ArendsAmerican politician · b. 1895
Donald C. DobbinsAmerican politician · b. 1878
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Brown TownshipIts storyB−Ludlow TownshipIts storyCDix TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townFisherIts storyC+

Questions about East Bend Township’s history

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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.