The story
Read it all →How Olive Township came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Olive Township.
Olive Township was organized in 1876. Abel Olive was an early settler.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
BHistory
History · Olive Township
27% of Olive Township’s homes were built before 1940
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: maps from 1985 on.
0on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
Quick answers
About Olive Township’s history
How historic is Olive Township?
B
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 56% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
History grade
What drives Olive Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Olive Township is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Olive Township’s overall grade.
Founding eraNo founding year we can rely on, so the grade uses the other two–Homes built before 194026.5% of homes (±7.2) · typical IL town 10.6% · U.S. 8.4%A−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical IL town 0.5 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 56%
NewerOlder
Few Illinois towns list much on the Register (a typical Illinois town has 0.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Olive Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.2 points).
Founding year: our sources. Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Olive Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Olive Township’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Olive Township’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Pleasant Hill
Moultonville
Binney
18301930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Binney
Gone or out of use
Hazel Dell SchoolschoolImmanuel ChurchchurchLivingston High SchoolschoolLivingston South Oil FieldoilfieldMoultonville SchoolschoolPleasant Hill SchoolschoolSpangle Schoolschool
4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Olive Township
OliveSacred HeartSaint VincentSpangle
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Timeline
Olive Township, 1833 to 1985
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1833Post officeThe Pleasant Hill post office opens
- 1835Post officeThe Pleasant Hill post office closes
- 1851Post officeThe Moultonville post office opens
- 1871Post officeThe Moultonville post office closes
- 1898Post officeThe Binney post office opens
- 20th century
- 1906Post officeThe Binney post office closes
- 1985
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your albumOn the map
Olive Township on the map in 1985
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Olive Township.
1985Carlyle Lake sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Olive Township.
Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Olive Township
Nobody well known was born in Olive Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Olive Township’s history
How does Olive Township rank for history?
Olive Township is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Olive Township?
27% of Olive Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.2 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1971.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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).
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.