Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1941 on and the census since 1880.
The Enfield post office opened in 1850, 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 Enfield’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Enfield yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Enfield is a village in White County, Illinois, United States. The population was 596 at the 2010 census, which rose to 794 in the 2020 Census.
Its first post office opened in 1850. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 596 to 794 (+33%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Enfield, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The first steam flouring mill in the township was built by the Orr brothers in 1865, an account of which is given in the history of the village of Enfield. TANNERIES. The early settlers tanned their own leather and made shoes for their own families. They put their hides in a small hod of water in the creek, which they removed in from seven to nine days, then lay the hides on a bench and scraped the hair off. They then put
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
He was engineer in Niles’s foundry, Cincinnati, two years, and in 1839 came to Shawneetown and was engineer in John Crenshaw’s mill, on the Shawneetown & Equality Railroad, about six months; then went onto his farm in Enfield Township. In 1841 he returned to Cincinnati and engineered in the same foundry for three years, where he was crippled in the left hand, and returned to this county in 1844. In 1848 he went to Evansville, Ind., and built a large business block and engaged in the mercantile business a few years.
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.
Weddings 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 Enfield. 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 Enfield.
Between 596 and 971 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Enfield’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Enfield post office opened in 1850, 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 Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
