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History · Morton Township

Morton Township’s post office opened in 1842

Most of Morton Township was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1974. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1928 on, and the census since 1880.

1842first post office
0on the National Register
7%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Morton Township’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Morton Township began

When was Morton Township founded?

1842

The Morton Township post office opened in 1842, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Cooper (1878) and Crandall (1889), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 426 in 18802020 census: 17,767184 years
Founding year: the first Morton Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Morton Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Morton Township, and 3 old place names are still on the map.Deep rootsA post office since 1842: 184 years of Morton Township.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Morton Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Morton Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewColony Association ("American medical d…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Cooper
1878–1904
Crandall
1889–1909
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
CooperCrandallMayfair
Gone or out of use
Buckeye SchoolschoolCrandall SchoolschoolMay SchoolschoolPhillips SchoolschoolPrairie Creek Schoolschool
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Morton Township
BuckeyeHillcrest Memory GardensRoberts

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Timeline

Morton Township, 1878 to 1928

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1878Post officeThe Cooper post office opens
  3. 1889Post officeThe Crandall post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1904Post officeThe Cooper post office closes
  6. 1906In the archiveColony Association ("American medical directory", 1906 advert)
  7. 1909Post officeThe Crandall post office closes
  8. 1928On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story so far

Morton Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Morton Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Morton is a village in Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. The population was 17,117 at the 2020 census. The community holds a yearly Morton Pumpkin Festival for four days every September, and claims that "99 percent of the world's canned pumpkin is produced in Morton," earning it the designation "Pumpkin Capital of the World".

Its first post office opened in 1842. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 17,036 to 17,767 (+4%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

By decade

Morton Township, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s1 item
Colony Association ("American medical directory", 1906 advert)1906Colony Association ("American medical directory", 190…
1910s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today7 recent
Welcome to Downtown2023Welcome to DowntownDowntown2023DowntownIL-098-I-155EWR2021IL-098-I-155EWRThere you go (Unsplash)2016There you go (Unsplash)Dry white branches (Unsplash)2016Dry white branches (Unsplash)Fire poi2009Fire poiBudweiser clydesdales2009Budweiser clydesdales
On the map

Morton Township on the map, 1928 to 1995

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Morton Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Morton Township on the 1928 USGS mapMorton Township on the 1932 USGS mapMorton Township on the 1970 USGS mapMorton Township on the 1995 USGS map1928Mackinaw sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Morton Township.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Colony Association ("American medical directory", 1906 advert)
Retake this viewColony Association ("American medical directory", 1906 advert), 1906

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Morton Township’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Morton Township, census by census

02,0004,0006,0008,00010,00012,00014,00016,00018,0001880190019201940196019802000202017,117

Grew from 426 people in 1880 to 17,117 in 2020, more than tenfold.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Morton Township’s Wikipedia page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Groveland TownshipIts storyB−Tremont Township1 historic placeADeer Creek TownshipIts storyB+Washington Township4 historic placesB+MortonIts storyC+

Questions about Morton Township’s history

What year was Morton Township founded?

The Morton Township post office opened in 1842, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 (8), 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.