Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1982 on and the census since 1880.
The Little York post office opened in 1840, 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 Little York’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Little York.
The area was first settled in 1829 along what was once known as the "Monmouth, Aledo and Muscatine Stagecoach line." A section of the MAM Trail between Little York and Monmouth still exists today as part of IL-13.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Little York, cut from the printed page as they were published.
modious edifice, at a cost of about $4,000 ; later on a good parsonage was put up. The church building is beautifully located, about three miles northeast of Little York, and the parsonage about a mile north of the church. All of the original members are either dead or have moved away. The widow of Rev. John Wallace is yet living, in Little York.
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 Little York.
1982Little York sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Little York.
Between 79 and 358 people in every census since 1880.
14 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Little York’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Little York itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Little York post office opened in 1840, 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 Wikipedia, 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.
