The Hutton Township post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Stewart (1844), Hutton (1861) and Diona (1869), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 763165 years
Founding year: the first Hutton Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Hutton Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The story so far
Hutton Township, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Hutton Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Hutton is an unincorporated community in Coles County, Illinois, United States. Hutton is 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Charleston and used to be known as Salisbury.
Its first post office opened in 1861. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 919 to 763 (-17%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Hutton Township in 1879
Passages that mention Hutton Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The History of Coles County, Illinois ... map of Coles County1879 · page 431Read the page →
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As we stated above, the first settlement in the county was made in Hutton Township. In 1824, John Parker and his sons, Benjamin, Daniel, Silas and James Parker, and Samuel Kellogg and his wife, made a settlement here, and composed this first colony of pioneers in Hutton Township. But one of the little band of pilgrims is now alive — the widow of Samuel Kellogg, who lives at present in the city of Charleston. They settled on the Embarrass River, just opposite where the Blakeman Mills now stand. Some of the Parkers afterward settled in Charleston Township, where they are noticed among the early settlers
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The history of Coles county, Illinois..1879 · page 431Read the page →
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As we stated above, the first settlement in the county was made in Hutton Township. In 1824, John Parker and his sons, Benjamin, Daniel, Silas and James Parker, and Samuel Kellogg and his wife, made a settlement here, and composed this first colony of pioneers in Hutton Township. But one of the little band of pilgrims is now alive — the widow of Samuel Kellogg, who lives at present in the city of Charleston. They settled on the Embarrass River, just opposite wherethe Blakeman Mills now stand. Some of the Parkers afterward settled in Charleston Township, where they are noticed among the early settlers
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The History of Coles County, Illinois ... map of Coles County1879 · page 434Read the page →
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farm where his son, Edmond Conley, now lives. His son, Jack Conley, went to Texas, and William to California, where they died. Edmond, Elijah and Washington Conley still live in Hutton Township, and are among the prosperous and energetic men of the community. The Rennelses came from Madison County, and located in what is known as the Rennels Settlement, a mile or two from the little village of Salisbury. James Rennels was the first one to settle in the township, locating on Section 32, in 1832, where he has ever since resided. John Rennels, his father, came to the township in 1837, and
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The history of Coles county, Illinois..1879 · page 441Read the page →
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The first death in Hutton Township was a Mrs. Whitten, the wife of a millwright who was engaged on the Parker Mill, and was the first death in Coles County as well as in Hutton Township. Her death occurred in 1825, and she was buried on the bluff", a few hundred yards east of the mill. The first marriage in the town is lost in the mists of antiquity, and the first birth involved in some doubt. A birth occurred in the family of William Beaver, soon after his settlement here, but whether the first in the neighborhood is not known.
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.
Timeline
Hutton Township, 1844 to 1933
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hutton Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1933Toledo 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 Hutton Township.
On the National Register
1 historic place in Hutton Township
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
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 National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
