Elsah’s post office opened in 1859, and 51% of its homes were built before 1940
2 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Principia College Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and two historic districts with 72 buildings between them. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1921 on, and the census since 1880.
The Elsah post office opened in 1859, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Jersey Landing (1852), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 250 in 18802020 census: 519167 years
Founding year: the first Elsah post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Elsah’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
James Semple, a local lawyer, prominent politician and United States Senator from Illinois, founded Elsah in 1853 and offered free lots to anyone who built houses with stone from his quarry. It is believed that he named the village of Elsah after Ailsa Craig, the last outcropping his family saw as they departed Scotland for the United States. By 1861, the village had grown to its current size, as geographic and economic limitations prevented further expansion.
Passages that mention Elsah, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Jersey County, Illinois1919 · page 467Read the page →
Read the text
RAILROADS In 1882, on the first day of January, what is now known as the Chi¬ cago, Peoria & St. Louis Railroad was operated from the station of Bates on the Wabash west of Springfield to Elsah on the Mississippi River. The first train was run over the road on January 1, from Bates, over the top of the bluff to Elsah, this being known as the “Shoofly.”
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Jersey County, Illinois1919 · page 366Read the page →
Read the text
wife, Addison Greene and other parties, a large body of land in sec¬ tions 17, 18, 19 and 20, township 6, range 11, the three last named being fractional sections along the Mississippi River. On April 7, 1855, he platted the village of Elsah, on the fractional northwest quarter of section 20, extending north from the river up what was then known as “Askew Hollow,” named for Col. Josiah T. Askew, who, during his life¬ time, owned a sugar camp there. James Mason had entered this tract in 1820.
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.
Timeline
Elsah, 1852 to 1993
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs 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 Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
★ Landmark
Date?
2022
2014
2008
