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History · Hawthorne Township

18% of Hawthorne Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1940 on.

0on the National Register
18%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory

What stands out about Hawthorne 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 Hawthorne Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Hawthorne Township, and 3 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Hawthorne Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Hawthorne 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

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

Big Prairie
1839–1841
Epworth
1892–1954
18301930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
BrownsportEpworthGarnerville
Gone or out of use
Blagg SchoolschoolBrown SchoolschoolCarmi Air Force StationmilitaryCleveland SchoolschoolCook SchoolschoolDuck Pond SchoolschoolGeorgia SchoolschoolHadden SchoolschoolMaunie North Oil FieldoilfieldNew Harmony Oil FieldoilfieldRudolph SchoolschoolSimpson SchoolschoolStorms Oil Fieldoilfield
9cemeteries and burying grounds inside Hawthorne Township
Big PrairieBowlingBryantClevelandHannaHolderbyJones FamilyKuykendallSandhill

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

The story so far

Hawthorne Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Hawthorne Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Hawthorne Township is located in White County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 275 and it contained 141 housing units.

Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 275 in 2010, 273 in 2020.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Hawthorne Township, 1839 to 1954

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1839Post officeThe Big Prairie post office opens
  3. 1841Post officeThe Big Prairie post office closes
  4. 1892Post officeThe Epworth post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1918Born hereFrank McElyea is born here
  7. 1940On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  8. 1954Post officeThe Epworth 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.
Add from your album
On the map

Hawthorne Township on the map, 1940 to 1974

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

Hawthorne Township on the 1940 USGS mapHawthorne Township on the 1959 USGS mapHawthorne Township on the 1974 USGS map1940Carmi sheet · 1:62,500

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Phillips Township1 historic placeA−Emma TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townCarmi Township5 historic placesA−MaunieIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Hawthorne Township’s history

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
Start a conversation
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 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.