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History · Iroquois

Iroquois’ post office opened in 1833, and 43% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1939 on, and the census since 1890.

1833first post office
0on the National Register
43%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
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Quick answers

How Iroquois began

When was Iroquois founded?

1833

The Iroquois post office opened in 1833, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 393 in 18902020 census: 133193 years
Founding year: the first Iroquois post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Iroquois’ past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Iroquois’ homes were built before 1949.Deep rootsA post office since 1833: 193 years of Iroquois.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Iroquois’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Iroquois’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Iroquois, in brief

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

Iroquois is a village in Concord Township, Iroquois County, Illinois, United States, along the Iroquois River. The population was 133 as of the 2020 census.

Its first post office opened in 1833. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 154 to 133 (-14%).

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

Timeline

Iroquois, 1833 to 1939

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1833Post officeThe Iroquois post office opens
  3. 1872Born hereG. O. Dietz is born here
  4. 20th century
  5. 1939On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
From the old history books

What they wrote about Iroquois, 1893–1918

Passages that mention Iroquois, cut from the printed page as they were published.

lies just south of the river and was first in point of settlement and prominence. It also was built up on both sides of the Hubbard Trail. The original village of Iroquois was surveyed about the same time as Montgomery and adjoins the latter on the east; it also lies south of the river.
A centennial history of the villages of Iroquois and Montgomery and the township of Concord, 1818 to 19181918Read the page →
Read the text

lies just south of the river and was first in point of settlement and prominence. It also was built up on both sides of the Hubbard Trail. The original village of Iroquois was surveyed about the same time as Montgomery and adjoins the latter on the east; it also lies south of the river.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
nation, then the Iroquois territory, then the town south of the river, then Iroquois county, then the present railroad station, then the present village of Iroquois, and finally the Government fell in line and named the post office IROQUOIS. While the word Bunkum has had a tenacious life, it has lo…
A centennial history of the villages of Iroquois and Montgomery and the township of Concord, 1818 to 19181918Read the page →
Read the text

nation, then the Iroquois territory, then the town south of the river, then Iroquois county, then the present railroad station, then the present village of Iroquois, and finally the Government fell in line and named the post office IROQUOIS. While the word Bunkum has had a tenacious life, it has long since fallen into obnoxious desuetude, and is never used in connection with the

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
roained until 187L He then removed to Newton County, Ind., where he resided until 1878, working at his trade. That year witnessed his arrival in Iroquois County and he located in Concord Township, just south of Iroquois River and near the village of Iroquois, where he has a nice little farm of abou…
Portrait and biographical record of Iroquois County, Illinois, containing biographical sketches of prominent1893 · page 742Read the page →
Read the text

roained until 187L He then removed to Newton County, Ind., where he resided until 1878, working at his trade. That year witnessed his arrival in Iroquois County and he located in Concord Township, just south of Iroquois River and near the village of Iroquois, where he has a nice little farm of about eighteen acres. In August, 1890, he was appointed Postmaster and is now faithfully

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.

By decade

Iroquois, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
A centennial history of the villages of Iroquois and Montgomery and the township of Concord, 1818 to 1918Date?A centennial history of the villages of Iroquois and …Book
Today5 recent
Lincoln from Hamilton in Iroquois, south side2015Lincoln from Hamilton in Iroquois, south sideLincoln from Hamilton in Iroquois, north side2015Lincoln from Hamilton in Iroquois, north sideIroquois town hall on Lincoln2015Iroquois town hall on LincolnIroquois UMC, 18752015Iroquois UMC, 1875ILMap-doton-Iroquois2006ILMap-doton-Iroquois
On the map

Iroquois on the map, 1939 to 1980

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

Iroquois on the 1939 USGS mapIroquois on the 1964 USGS mapIroquois on the 1978 USGS mapIroquois on the 1980 USGS map1939Watseka 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 Iroquois.

People over time

Iroquois, census by census

01002003004001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 427

Between 133 and 427 people in every census since 1890.

14 censuses, 1890–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Iroquois’ Wikipedia page.

Questions about Iroquois’ history

What year was Iroquois founded?

The Iroquois post office opened in 1833, 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 Wikimedia Commons (6), 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.