Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1912 on and the census since 1910.
The Norris post office opened in 1863, 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 Norris’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Norris yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Norris is a village in Fulton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 173 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1863. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 213 to 173 (-19%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Norris, cut from the printed page as they were published.
![The little village of Norris is upon the northeast quarter of section 8 of this townshij). It is upon the Canton and Farmington township line, and is surrounded by as fine farming community as the county can boast of; but being so near Canton its trade can never assume any great pro])ortions.](https://images.townratings.com/story/3293/bk-bcaf42eeebeb351c-l.jpg)
The little village of Norris is upon the northeast quarter of section 8 of this townshij). It is upon the Canton and Farmington township line, and is surrounded by as fine farming community as the county can boast of; but being so near Canton its trade can never assume any great pro])ortions.
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 Norris.
1912Canton sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Norris.
Between 173 and 560 people in every census since 1910.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Norris’ Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Norris itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Norris’s post office has been open since 1863.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Norris post office opened in 1863, 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 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.
