Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Odd Fellows Opera Block. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1915 on, and the census since 1880.
The Ellisville post office opened in 1838, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Ellisville’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Ellisville yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Ellisville is a village in Fulton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 87 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1838. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 96 to 87 (-9%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ellisville. 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 Ellisville.
Passages that mention Ellisville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The village of Ellisville was founded in 1830. It was at one time a great center for business. The people for forty miles around came here to have their grain ground and do their trading. But this prosperity was banished on the construction of the C, B. & Q. Railroad.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
City Business College, of Quincy, 111. Mr. H. again crossed the plains to California in '63 and engaged in mining, and collected several thousands of dollars together and returned in '68, settling in the quiet village of Ellisville. He did not cross the plains without privations and snifering ; at one time he traveled on an allowance of 3 biscuits a day, and a stranger came along in a suffering condition and Mr. H. divided his only , biscuit with him. Mr. H.
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.
In the archiveUS Post Office 1891
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Ellisville’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Between 87 and 260 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ellisville’s Wikipedia page.
The Ellisville post office opened in 1838, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Odd Fellows Opera Block (listed 1996).
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 Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
2020