Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Pine Grove Community Club. Below: maps from 1947 on and old-book passages.
The Edgar Township post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Bloomfield (1819), Edgar Courthouse (1824) and Edgar (1872), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Five other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Edgar Township’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Edgar Township.
Abraham L. Stanfield (1860–1927), Illinois state representative and businessman, was born on a farm near Edgar.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Edgar Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
About 1849 or 1850, the United Brethren built a church just over the line in Edgar Township, which may properly be termed as the first church in the community. This, the first residents in Shiloh attended, and many yet go there for divine services, who are members of that denomination.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
About 1849 or 1850, the United Brethren built a church just over the line in Edgar Township, which may properly be termed as the first church in the com¬ munity. This, the first residents in Shiloh attended, and many yet go there for divine services, who are members of that denomination.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
About 1849 or 1850, the United Brethren built a church just over the line in Edgar Township, which may properly be termed as the first church in the com¬ munity. This, the first residents in Shiloh attended, and many yet go there for divine services, who are members of that denomination.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
of the woodland is rather thin soil, but is covered, or was at the time of early settlement, with a fine growth of white and black oak, hickory, elm, ash, and a light sprinkle of walnut along the edge of the prairies. The old Indian boundary line passes between this and Edgar Township, and is more particularly referred to in the general county history. No railroad tracks mar the sacred soil of Brouillett, neither are there any cities or large towns within its borders, but wholly oblivious as to the wickedness of the great cities of the outside world, its quiet citizens move on in the even tenor of their ways, engaged in agricul-
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereAbraham L. Stanfield is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Edgar Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Edgar Township.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Edgar Township post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Pine Grove Community Club (listed 1984).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
