Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Nyttend · Public domain10 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1921 on, and the census since 1850.
Monmouth Township dates its founding to 1824 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1850.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Monmouth Township. 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 Monmouth Township.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveSilver print cabinet card of Abraham Lincoln's October 11, 1858 sitting
In the archiveBird's eye view of the city of Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois 1869
In the archiveIllinois, Monmouth. Buggies and wagons at Northeast corner of square
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Monmouth Township.
Monmouth was settled in about 1824. The town established in 1831 was originally going to be called Kosciusko (the name was drawn out of a hat), but the founders of the town feared that it would be difficult to spell and pronounce. The name 'Monmouth' was put forward by a resident who had lived in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Monmouth Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 797 and 11,022 people in every census since 1850.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Monmouth Township’s Wikipedia page.
Another post office, Warren Courthouse, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1824, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Monmouth Township’s post office opened in 1830, and the census of 1850 counted 797 people here.
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 Wikimedia Commons (3), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1890
1896