Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Russellville

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Russellville

Russellville’s post office opened in 1835, and 25% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1917 on and the census since 1870.

1835first post office
0on the National Register
25%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0
Quick answers

How Russellville began

When was Russellville founded?

1835

The Russellville post office opened in 1835, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 311 in 18702020 census: 98191 years
Founding year: the first Russellville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Russellville’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 Russellville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19173 editions of the USGS map, 1917 to 1964. Watch Russellville change.Deep rootsA post office since 1835: 191 years of Russellville.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Russellville’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Russellville’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
On the map

Russellville on the map, 1917 to 1964

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

Russellville on the 1917 USGS mapRussellville on the 1942 USGS mapRussellville on the 1964 USGS map1917Birds 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 Russellville.

Timeline

Russellville, 1835 to 1917

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1835Post officeThe Russellville post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1916Post officeThe Russellville post office closes
  5. 1917On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story

How Russellville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Russellville.

Read it all →

Russellville is rooted in a fort built by Samuel and Jonathan Allison near the site of an abandoned Indian village known as "Little Village" in the early 1800s. A town site was platted in 1835, and named for the Russell brothers, August, Andrew, and Clement, who provided lumber for the settlement's first buildings. Russellville incorporated in 1875.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Russellville, decade by decade

Today1 recent
Russellville-Community-Center-il2020Russellville-Community-Center-il
People over time

Russellville, census by census

010020030018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 311

Between 94 and 311 people in every census since 1870.

16 censuses, 1870–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Russellville had its own post office from 1835 to 1916.

Russellville
1835–1916
18301930today

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

Questions about Russellville’s history

What year was Russellville founded?

The Russellville post office opened in 1835, 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 (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) 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.