Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1944 on and old-book passages.
The Elmira Township post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Elmira (1840), Oceola (1852) and Osceola (1878), 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Elmira Township’s history is told.
Three 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Elmira Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Elmira is an unincorporated community in Stark County, Illinois, United States. Elmira is located on Illinois Route 93, 9 miles (14 km) west of Bradford.
Its first post office opened in 1840. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 319 to 311 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Elmira Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
took the name of Osceola. Being some distance from a railroad, the village has never grown to any considerable proportions, but it forms a trading point and meeting place for the people in the northeastern part of Elmira Township. The population in 1910 was only 55. It has a general store, a Baptist Church, a iNlethodist Chiu'ch and parsonage, a public school and a few dwellings, and is on one of the rural mail routes fi'om Neponset, in Bureau County.
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.
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 Elmira 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 Elmira Township.
Nobody well known was born in Elmira Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Elmira Township post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 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.
