Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1986 on and the census since 1870.
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 Liberty Township’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Liberty Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Liberty Township is one of fifteen townships in Effingham County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2020 census, its population was 731 and it contained 351 housing units.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 764 to 731 (-4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Liberty Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Education was not neglected by the peojile of Liberty Township. Schools were early established, and have always been supported liberally. It is not known now who taught the first school, nor the exact spot where it was taught. There is at present a good, comfortable schoolhouse in every neighborhood of the township, which supports a first-
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.
Weddings 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 Liberty Township.
1986Effingham 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 Liberty Township.
Between 504 and 917 people in every census since 1870.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Liberty Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Liberty Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
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 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.
