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History · Pesotum

Pesotum’s post office opened in 1856, and 27% of its homes were built before 1940

1856first post office
0on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Pesotum began

When was Pesotum founded?

1856

The Pesotum post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 550170 years
Founding year: the first Pesotum post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Pesotum’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Pesotum are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Pesotum’s homes were built before 1963.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Pesotum’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story so far

Pesotum, in brief

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

Pesotum is a village in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Pesotum had a population of 550. The village was named after Pesotum, a Native American warrior in the Battle of Fort Dearborn.

Its first post office opened in 1856. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 551 in 2010, 550 in 2020.

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

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.

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Famous people

Famous people close to Pesotum

Nobody well known was born in Pesotum itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

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Saul PerlmutterAmerican astrophysicist and Nobel laureate · b. 1959
James TobinAmerican economist · b. 1918
LudacrisAmerican rapper and actor · b. 1977
Megyn KellyAmerican journalist · b. 1970
R
Rocky RyanAmerican-football player · b. 1932

Questions about Pesotum’s history

What year was Pesotum founded?

The Pesotum post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

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

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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 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.