Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1958 on and the census since 1890.
The Kinsman post office opened in 1876, 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 Kinsman’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Kinsman yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Kinsman is a village in Grundy County, Illinois, United States. The population was 90 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1876. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 99 to 90 (-9%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Peaked at 219 in 1910; 90 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kinsman’s Wikipedia page.
Passages that mention Kinsman, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The only railroad station in Highland Township is Kinsman, which is located on the Atchison. Tupeka & Santa Fe Railroad. It is a little settlement about the railroad station and the Catholic Church, and the residents are principally retired farmers of the Catholic faith.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kinsman. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Kinsman.
Nobody well known was born in Kinsman itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Kinsman post office opened in 1876, 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 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.
