Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Route 66, Girard to Nilwood. Below: maps from 1925 on and the census since 1900.
The Nilwood Township post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1867. Two smaller post offices, McVey (1881) and Greenridge (1896), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Nilwood Township’s history is told.
Two other post offices 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Nilwood Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Nilwood is an incorporated town in Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. The population was 201 at the 2020 census, down from 239 in 2010.
Its first post office opened in 1856. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 637 to 620 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Nilwood 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 Nilwood Township.
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.
Between 201 and 529 people in every census since 1900.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Nilwood Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Nilwood Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Nilwood Township post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1867.
One place: the Route 66, Girard to Nilwood (listed 2002).
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 (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
2026
2012
