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History · Richview Township

Richview Township’s post office opened in 1848

Most of Richview Township was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1986.

1848first post office
0on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Richview Township began

When was Richview Township founded?

1848

The Richview Township post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 318178 years
Founding year: the first Richview Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Richview 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 Richview Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1848: 178 years of Richview Township.
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Start Richview Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Richview Township’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

How Richview Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Richview Township.

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Richview was originally called "Richmond", and under the latter name was platted in 1839. The present name was adopted in 1852 because of the elevated site of the old town, which afforded a fine view of the surrounding area.

Richview was first formed in 1839. It gradually grew into a business center. It had five stores, two blacksmiths, one wagon shop, 3 physicians, and had a population around 600 people. It had also turned into a railroad town. It was one of 4 towns along the Illinois Central Railway. Eventually two towns would form, Old and New Richview, and together they had a population of around 1000. The two towns did congeal into one. Today Richview is a small village with only a population of about 250.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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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Places that used to be

Places now gone

Gone or out of use
Richview Oil FieldoilfieldWhite SchoolschoolWhittenberg Schoolschool

Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Irvington TownshipIts storyC+Ashley TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Richview Township’s history

What year was Richview Township founded?

The Richview Township post office opened in 1848, 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 Wikipedia 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.