Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 20 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper and maps from 1936 on.
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 Fairfield Township’s history is told.
Two 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 Fairfield Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Fairfield Township is one of twenty-five townships in Bureau County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2020 census, its population was 379 and it contained 142 housing units.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 375 in 2010, 379 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archivePresbyterian pastor in Klan robes praises Jewish merchant and Klan presents flowers to hi…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
BuiltHennepin Canal Historic District is builtOne decade in the archive so far: the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fairfield 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 Fairfield Township.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
![Presbyterian pastor in Klan robes praises Jewish merchant and Klan presents flowers to him in [sic] his golden business…](https://images.townratings.com/story/19800/4257318013c76f0e8c1b-l.jpg)
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Fairfield Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Fairfield Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
One place: the Hennepin Canal Historic District (listed 1978).
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 the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
