Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1985 on and the census since 1880.
The Hartsburg post office opened in 1871, 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 Hartsburg’s history is told.
Peaked at 379 in 1980; 262 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hartsburg’s Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Hartsburg yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Hartsburg is a village in Logan County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Hartsburg had a population of 262.
Its first post office opened in 1871. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 314 to 262 (-17%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Hartsburg, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Hartsburg was laid out by David H. Harts, of Lincoln, for whom the town was named in 1871. It was surveyed on June 22 of that year by Thomas G. Gardner, the Peoria, Lincoln-and Decatur, now the Peoria and Evansville branch of the Ilinois Central railroad, having been completed to that locality about that time. The first store in the village was erected by E. R. Woland, who rented the same for business purposes to Henry Ruhaak, of Pekin, who also bought grain for Smith, Hippen & Company, of Pekin. J. E. Miller built the second store, which was con-
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.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hartsburg.
1985Lincoln sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Hartsburg.
The Hartsburg post office opened in 1871, 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.