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History · Pleasant Hill

Pleasant Hill’s post office opened in 1836, and 11% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1930 on, and the census since 1870.

1836first post office
0on the National Register
11%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Pleasant Hill’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Pleasant Hill began

When was Pleasant Hill founded?

1836

The Pleasant Hill post office opened in 1836, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 230 in 18702020 census: 924190 years
Founding year: the first Pleasant Hill post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Pleasant Hill’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 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1836: 190 years of Pleasant Hill.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Pleasant Hill’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewPlat book of Pike County, Illinois: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Timeline

Pleasant Hill, 1836 to 1930

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1836Post officeThe Pleasant Hill post office opens
  3. 1895In the archivePlat book of Pike County, Illinois
  4. 20th century
  5. 1930On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story so far

Pleasant Hill, in brief

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

Pleasant Hill is a village in Pike County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Pleasant Hill had a population of 924. Pleasant Hill is the site of the annual Pike County Fair, as well as the location of the Bi-State Annual Demolition Derby, which was previously held at Mid America Adventure in Eureka, Missouri.

Its first post office opened in 1836. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 966 to 924 (-4%).

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

From the old history books

What they wrote about Pleasant Hill in 1880

Passages that mention Pleasant Hill, cut from the printed page as they were published.

The members near Pleasant Hill wishing to be constituted an independent Church at Pleasant Hill sent a petition to the mother Church at Martinsburg, which was granted May 4, 1857; whereupon the following persons received letters of dismissal for that purpose: *G.W. Gregory.
History of Pike county, Illinois1880 · page 725Read the page →
Read the text

The members near Pleasant Hill wishing to be constituted an independent Church at Pleasant Hill sent a petition to the mother Church at Martinsburg, which was granted May 4, 1857; whereupon the following persons received letters of dismissal for that purpose: *G.W. Gregory.

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.

By decade

Pleasant Hill, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1890s2 items
Plat book of Pike County, Illinois1895Plat book of Pike County, IllinoisPlat book of Pike County, Illinois1895Plat book of Pike County, Illinois
1900s–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
On the map

Pleasant Hill on the map, 1930 to 1978

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

Pleasant Hill on the 1930 USGS mapPleasant Hill on the 1942 USGS mapPleasant Hill on the 1978 USGS map1930Nebo 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 Pleasant Hill.

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.

Plat book of Pike County, Illinois
Retake this viewPlat book of Pike County, Illinois, 1895

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Pleasant Hill, census by census

02004006008001,0001,20018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,112

Between 230 and 1,112 people in every census since 1870.

16 censuses, 1870–2020.

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

Questions about Pleasant Hill’s history

What year was Pleasant Hill founded?

The Pleasant Hill post office opened in 1836, 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 (2), 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.