Ellsworth was laid out on December 6, 1871, by Jonathan H. Cheney (1833–1920), Almon Brigham Ives (1816–1887), and Oliver Ellsworth, whom the town was named after. Cheney was one of three sons of early McLean County settler Jonathan Cheney active in promoting the Lafayette Bloomington and Mississippi Railroad; when his brother, Haines Cheney, was in the Illinois Senate he had helped to arrange the charter of the railroad. Almon B. Ives was a Bloomington lawyer specializing in land law; both Cheney and Ives were on the board of directors of the new railroad. In 1876 the railroad was leased to the Lake Erie and Western Railroad and in 1879 was incorporated into that road. Construction began on the railroad in 1869. The new townsite occupied 40 acres (16 ha) on each side of the tracks. The plan of Ellsworth was almost identical to that of its neighbor, Arrowsmith. A 200-foot (61 m) swath o…
it passed out and the membership transferred to Carlock. Colfax has had a church since 1867, and in 1907 the present building was erected. John R. Golden formed a congregation at Cooksville in 1902, succeeding the Blue Mound Church. Ellsworth Church succeeded the Old Town Church in 1867, and Heyworth Church was organized in 1872. In 1906 the present modern building was erected in Heyworth. A Christian Church has been at Holder since 1877, and at Hudson since 1877. Leroy Church was formed in 1888 by T. T. Holton, and a fine church erected in 1907. Lexington
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The History of McLean County, Illinois1879 · page 651Read the page →
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William Harrison, another son-in-law of Dawson, commenced a farm here about the same time, and still lives with his son on the farm near Ellsworth. William and Frank Evans, sons of William Evans, who was one of the first settlers of Blooming Grove, early took up farms near the timber, and have raised large families here.
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struction, and of this sort of aid Dawson voted $30,000. The road was first called Lafayette & Bloomington, later the Lake Erie, and finally absorbed as part of the Nickel Plate system. Two stations were located on this road in Dawson Township, one in the east called Ellsworth, the other to the west called Padua. The township was also called Padua at first, but the board of supervisors in 1891 changed the name of the township to Dawson on request of the citizens. Ellsworth was named for Oliver Ellsworth, who with Jonathan Cheney and A. B. Ives owned the
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Timeline
Ellsworth, 1871 to 2000
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In 1871, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Ellsworth’s post office opened in 1872, and the census of 1880 counted 168 people here.
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), 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.
