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History · Prairie Creek Township

Prairie Creek Township’s post office opened in 1850, and 45% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1942 on and the census since 2000.

1850first post office
0on the National Register
45%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Prairie Creek Township began

When was Prairie Creek Township founded?

1850

The Prairie Creek Township post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Prairie Creek (1850) and Harness (1898), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 533 in 20002020 census: 415176 years
Founding year: the first Prairie Creek Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Prairie Creek Township’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 Prairie Creek Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Prairie Creek Township, and 1 old place names are still on the map.Old housesHalf of Prairie Creek Township’s homes were built before 1952.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Prairie Creek Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Prairie Creek Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Prairie Creek
1850–1867
Harness
1898–1911
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Harness
Gone or out of use
Cream Ridge SchoolschoolElder Grove SchoolschoolNeibuhr SchoolschoolVictory SchoolschoolZoar Schoolschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Prairie Creek Township
Green HillThomas

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story so far

Prairie Creek Township, in brief

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

Prairie Creek Township is located in Logan County, Illinois. As of the 2020 census, its population was 415 and it contained 176 housing units.

Its first post office opened in 1850. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 487 to 415 (-15%).

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

From the old history books

What they wrote about Prairie Creek Township in 1886

Passages that mention Prairie Creek Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Sheridan Township, in the western tier of townships, is bounded as follows: On the north by Prairie Creek Township, on the east by West Lincoln Township, on the south by Corwin Township, and on the west by Mason County. It is drained by Sugar Creek, flowing west, and crossed in nearly the same dire…
History of Logan County, Illinois1886 · page 866Read the page →
Read the text

Sheridan Township, in the western tier of townships, is bounded as follows: On the north by Prairie Creek Township, on the east by West Lincoln Township, on the south by Corwin Township, and on the west by Mason County. It is drained by Sugar Creek, flowing west, and crossed in nearly the same direction by the Champaign & Havana Line, with two stations, Burton View and New Holland. At the former place is no village — merely a postoffice and railroad station.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Sheridan Township, in the western tier of townships, is bounded as follows: On the north by Prairie Creek Township, on the east by West Lincoln Township, on the south by Corwin Townahip, and on the west by Mason County. It is drained by Sugar Creek, flowing west, and crossed in nearly the same dire…
History of Logan County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages, and towns, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent person, and biographies of representative citizens1886 · page 866Read the page →
Read the text

Sheridan Township, in the western tier of townships, is bounded as follows: On the north by Prairie Creek Township, on the east by West Lincoln Township, on the south by Corwin Townahip, and on the west by Mason County. It is drained by Sugar Creek, flowing west, and crossed in nearly the same direction by the Champaign & Havana Line, with two stations. Burton View and New Holland. At the former place is no village — merely a postoffice and railroad station.

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.

Timeline

Prairie Creek Township, 1850 to 1942

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1850Post officeThe Prairie Creek post office opens
  3. 1867Post officeThe Prairie Creek post office closes
  4. 1898Post officeThe Harness post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1911Post officeThe Harness post office closes
  7. 1942On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Prairie Creek Township, decade by decade

Today1 recent
Prairie Creek Township building 2026-07-172026Prairie Creek Township building 2026-07-17
On the map

Prairie Creek Township on the map, 1942 to 1980

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

Prairie Creek Township on the 1942 USGS mapPrairie Creek Township on the 1980 USGS map1942Delavan 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 Prairie Creek Township.

People over time

Prairie Creek Township, census by census

010020030040050020002020Peak: 533

Between 415 and 533 people in every census since 2000.

3 censuses, 2000–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Prairie Creek Township’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Prairie Creek Township

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

See all →
Scott AltmanAmerican astronaut, aviator and test pilot · b. 1959
Terry KinneyAmerican actor · b. 1954
Brian CookAmerican basketball player · b. 1980
Edward Rell MadiganAmerican politician · b. 1936
John SchlittAmerican singer · b. 1950
W
William Keepers Maxwell, Jr.American novelist · b. 1908
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Delavan Township3 historic placesA+Orvil TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townAllens Grove TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townSheridan TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMason City TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMalone TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBoynton TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Prairie Creek Township’s history

What year was Prairie Creek Township founded?

The Prairie Creek Township post office opened in 1850, 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 →
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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 Wikimedia Commons (1), 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.