Photo: formulanone from Huntsville, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0
Quick answers
How Roseville began
When was Roseville founded?
1853
The Roseville post office opened in 1853, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Hat Grove (1843), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 804 in 18802020 census: 892173 years
Founding year: the first Roseville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Roseville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Portrait and biographical album of Warren County, Illinois1886 · page 279Read the page →
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and in 1873 secured 80 acres additional in the same township. He continued to follow agricultural life with satisfactory results until 1876, when he retired from his farm, moving to the village of Roseville. Here he purchased two and a half acres of land, upon which are a good residence and barn, and the family are living comfortably. He is regarded as one of the most substantial men of Warren County.
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The past and present of Warren County, Illinois1877 · page 162Read the page →
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Thev held their first meetings in Jared's school house, about three miles southeast of Roseville. In the fall of 18-1:1, and until the spring of 1842, the meetings were held in Josiah Kirkpatrick's house, about two and a half miles south of Roseville. They were then held at Solomon Sovereign's house, now used for a hotel by Eli Gilbert, opposite the depot. The nieetin(>-s were held in tliis h(»use until the first school house was built. This served as a sanctuaiy until the present church and parsonage were built in 1867, at a cost of $5,500. This class, in its infancy, formed one of the ap-
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Portrait and biographical album of Warren County, Illinois1886 · page 737Read the page →
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Roseville has the credit of having the best school building in the county, and one of the best graded schools. The building is a large two-story brick structure, solid and handsome in its architecture, and containing six apartments. It was erected in 1880. C. A. Hebbard is the Principal of the I school, who is an experienced teacher and a gentleman of education. He has Mrs. M. E. Higgins for
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The past and present of Warren County, Illinois1877 · page 161Read the page →
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New Lancaster and Elliston, a few miles west, were enjoying quite a local trade, which continued until 1870. During the summer of this year, the Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis Railroad was completed through the county. This was the beginning of the prosperity of Roseville. It was now properly platted and the plat recorded by John A. Gordon, in the name of Mr. Eidridge and others of the most active residents, and an active trade at once opened.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Roseville, 1843 to 1980
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
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), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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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