The Eminence Township post office opened in 1838, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Union (1826), Eminence (1838) and Mount Joy (1867), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 507 in 20002020 census: 381188 years
Founding year: the first Eminence Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Eminence Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Union
1826–1831
Eminence
1838–1871
Mount Joy
1867–1871
18201920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
EvansLucasMountjoyUnion
Gone or out of use
Bloomingdale SchoolschoolFeist Landing StripairportPleasant Hill SchoolschoolRose Hill Schoolschool
8cemeteries and burying grounds inside Eminence Township
CarlockGilbertHowserMiller HasenmeyerMount JoyNiblickThompsonUnion Station
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The story so far
Eminence Township, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Eminence Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Eminence Township is located in Logan County, Illinois. As of the 2020 census, its population was 381 and it contained 186 housing units. Thomas C. Wilson surveyed the land that became the village of Eminence in September 1836. Named because of its location on high ground, Eminence received a U.S. Post Office in June 1838 and was part of Tazewell County, Illinois until the Illinois General Assembly created Logan County in February 1839. The village of Eminence was disestablished after the Civil War and is currently known as Mount Joy.
Its first post office opened in 1838. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 421 to 381 (-10%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Eminence Township in 1911
Passages that mention Eminence Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Logan County Illinois1911 · page 79Read the page →
Read the text
County Judge was created in 1849, he was elected first incumbent of that office and served until 1857, the year of his death. In 1827, Samuel Reid, Randolph Rose and John Johnson all entered land in sections eleven and twelve in what is now Eminence Township and near the present location of Mountjoy Station. William Herford, about the same time, entered land in that part of Eminence Township, which was then a part of Tazewell County and which now borders on the McLean County line; Samuel Foster staked out a claim on the east fork of Salt
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Logan County Illinois1911 · page 73Read the page →
Read the text
The first settlements in what is now Eminence Township were made about 1826, by the Orendorffs, Christopher, Benjamin and Joseph, Samuel B. Ewing, Archy Brien, Robert Hanna, William Burt and others. Christopher Orendorff settled on section nine and here he built the famous “Orendorff’s Mill,” known to three generations of Logan County people. It has been since known as Morgan’s Mill. It was the first water power grist mill in the county, the burrs being made from boulders gathered from Sugar Creek, upon which stream the mill was
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
Eminence Township, 1826 to 1951
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Eminence Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1951Minier sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Eminence Township.
People over time
Eminence Township, census by census
Between 381 and 507 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Eminence Township’s Wikipedia page.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
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), 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.
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