The town was founded in the 1830s by a man known as John Field. It is believed that the town grew as a trading post for travelers on the Illinois River. When the construction of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad made its way through the neighboring city of Jerseyville in 1853 it brought even more businesses to the area. During the Civil War Fieldon was a known stop for the Underground Railroad. The town also sent troops for the 122nd Illinois Infantry Regiment. In the early 1900s Feildon saw a boom in industry which included canneries, sawmills, and more. After the Great Depression the town saw its economy shift towards agriculture. Feildon saw a peak population in the 1980s at 299 individuals and has since seen a steady decline.
Passages that mention Fieldon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Jersey County, Illinois1919 · page 247Read the page →
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Dr. N. T. Winans settled at Fieldon during the fifties, and built up quite an extensive practice. His death occurred at Fieldon. Dr. Warner located at Grafton in 1908, and has built up a large practice in that city.
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History of Jersey County, Illinois1919 · page 86Read the page →
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he would freeze to death in the winter, or the prairie fires would burn everything up.” In accordance with this decision, Mr. Gunterman en¬ tered the land upon which he was living in 1870, which was northeast of Fieldon in Richwoods Township. He said that at the time that he was at Mr. Darr,’s, all of the land, so he supposed, between there and Vincennes, Inch, was open for settlement. It may be added that the most valuable and productive farms in this county are now upon those lands that Mr. Gunterman refused to enter. This feeling of dislike for
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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 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 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.
