Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1935 on and old-book passages.
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 Esmen Township’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Esmen Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Esmen Township is located in Livingston County, Illinois. As of the 2020 census, its population was 338 and it contained 141 housing units.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 326 to 338 (+4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Esmen Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The first post office for the benefit of this community, like the first school, was established in Esmen Township, was called Sunbury, and kept at the Brown residence. It was afterward moved to Andrew Sprague's, and has since had a migratory existence, like all country post offices, going from one house to another, as different persons could be found who were willing to be bothered with it. At last, when the village of Blackstone was established, the post office was moved there ; and, as its name was changed, it can hardly now be said to exist.
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 Esmen 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 Esmen Township.
Nobody well known was born in Esmen Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Rowe, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
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.
