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History · Fountain Green Township

Fountain Green Township’s post office opened in 1832, and 56% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1958 on.

1832first post office
0on the National Register
56%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Fountain Green Township began

When was Fountain Green Township founded?

1832

The Fountain Green Township post office opened in 1832, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Fountain Green (1832), Webster (1847) and La Crosse (1866), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 218194 years
Founding year: the first Fountain Green Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Fountain Green Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Fountain Green Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Fountain Green Township, and 3 old place names are still on the map.Old housesHalf of Fountain Green Township’s homes were built before 1938.Deep rootsA post office since 1832: 194 years of Fountain Green Township.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Fountain Green Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fountain Green Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Fountain Green
1832–1962
Webster
1847–1953
La Crosse
1866–1929
18301930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Fountain GreenLa CrosseWebster
Gone or out of use
Eagle SchoolschoolElder Grove SchoolschoolFountain Green Post Officepost officeHickory Grove SchoolschoolJoe Duncan SchoolschoolMcGuffy SchoolschoolRossville Schoolschool
4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Fountain Green Township
Fountain GreenLincoln CatholicMcConnell GeddesWright

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Fountain Green Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Fountain Green Township.

Read it all →

One of the earliest settlers in this area was Mordecai Lincoln, who prior to 1830 led a group from Kentucky in an attempt to establish a Catholic settlement in this part of Illinois, presaging by several years the Mormon settlement in nearby Nauvoo. He was followed by other southerners who were mostly Baptist in faith, including Baptists who had lived close to Mordecai near Springfield, Kentucky. Some of the Baptists settled along Baptist Creek to the northeast of Fountain Green.

The Catholic settlement foundered, in part because of the difficulty in obtaining a parish priest. The Baptist theology was better able to cope with such problems on the frontier.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Fountain Green Township, 1832 to 1962

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1832Post officeThe Fountain Green post office opens
  3. 1839Born hereRobert Wilson McClaughry is born here
  4. 1847Post officeThe Webster post office opens
  5. 1866Post officeThe La Crosse post office opens
  6. 20th century
  7. 1929Post officeThe La Crosse post office closes
  8. 1953Post officeThe Webster post office closes
  9. 1958On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  10. 1962Post officeThe Fountain Green post office closes
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Fountain Green Township on the map, 1958 to 1990

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fountain Green Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Fountain Green Township on the 1958 USGS mapFountain Green Township on the 1961 USGS mapFountain Green Township on the 1974 USGS mapFountain Green Township on the 1990 USGS map1958Burlington sheet · 1:250,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Fountain Green Township.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Pilot Grove TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLa Harpe Township2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townHancock TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townHire TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBlandinsville TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Fountain Green Township’s history

What year was Fountain Green Township founded?

The Fountain Green Township post office opened in 1832, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

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, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.