The Mill Shoals Township post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Crossroads (1895), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 629169 years
Founding year: the first Mill Shoals Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Mill Shoals Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first Euro-American settlers, primarily of Scotch-Irish descent, came to White County, Illinois between 1807 and 1809. The first settlements were near the Little Wabash River and Big Prairie, one of the numerous prairies in the county. Many came through the land office at Shawneetown, which was a port for flatboats which traveled the Ohio River. The second half of the 19th century saw the establishment of the towns of Norris City, Springerton including Mill Shoals. Once the home of a thriving barrel-making industry which depleted the nearby virgin forests Mill Shoals had primarily been an agriculture village until 1939 when oil was discovered in the area. In the early 1970s the oil industry declined steeply and thus returned Mill Shoals to its agricultural roots.
What they wrote about Mill Shoals Township in 1883
Passages that mention Mill Shoals Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of White County Illinois1883 · page 905Read the page →
Read the text
Springerville village was laid out in 1857 for William Upton by John Storms, County Surveyor. It is located on sections 17 and 18, Mill Shoals Township, and is situated on high, rolling land. The southeast branch of the O. & M. R. R. runs through this place; there is also a depot here. The name of Springerville was changed to Springerton when this railroad was built. This thriving little village boasts of a steam saw-mill and grist-mill, owned and operated by Mr. Upton & Co., who are doing a good business; two
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
Mill Shoals Township, 1828 to 1904
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 (3), 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.
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