Photo: formulanone from Huntsville, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0
Quick answers
How Roseville Township began
When was Roseville Township founded?
1853
The Roseville Township post office opened in 1853, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Picayune (1848), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 804 in 18802020 census: 1,135173 years
How historic is Roseville Township?
B−
More historic than 48% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Roseville Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Roseville Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Roseville Township is more historic than 48% 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 Roseville Township’s overall grade.
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 Roseville 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 any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.9 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). 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 Roseville Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 1,254 in 1980; 892 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Roseville Township’s Wikipedia page.
On the map
Roseville Township on the map, 1921 to 1998
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Roseville Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1921Monmouth 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 Roseville Township.
It is said that a man named Truman Eldridge from Hancock, Massachusetts founded the settlement in 1838 or 1839. By 1843 the area became known as Hat Grove and in 1853 the name was changed to Roseville. When the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was built through Warren County in the 1860s, local trade was able to expand beyond long journeys west to the Mississippi River and forward to St. Louis. With products instead moving north to the station in Monmouth.
Passages that mention Roseville Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Portrait and biographical album of Warren County, Illinois1886 · page 735Read the page →
Read the text
Roseville Township gradually increased with its settlement, its rich soil and fair fields stimulating production and inviting emigration, until now it is third in rank of population and one of the best producing townships in the county.
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
Roseville Township, 1848 to 1980
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Roseville Township post office opened in 1853, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Roseville Township rank for history?
Roseville Township is more historic than 48% 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 Roseville Township?
28% of Roseville Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.9 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1958.
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 Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, 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.
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