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History · Sadorus

Sadorus’ post office opened in 1884, and 26% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1950 on and the census since 1880.

1884first post office
0on the National Register
26%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Daniel Schwen · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Sadorus began

When was Sadorus founded?

1884

The Sadorus post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Sodorus (1855), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 250 in 18802020 census: 402142 years
Founding year: the first Sadorus post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Sadorus’ 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 Sadorus are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Sadorus’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Sadorus’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 Sadorus came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Sadorus.

Read it all →

Sadorus Grove was settled in April 1824 by Henry Sadorus, and was the first town founded in Champaign County. It was platted in 1837 by William Sadorus as the town of Sadorus.

There was a train wreck as a train was passing through the town on February 21, 2011. Two grain cars tipped over and another three or four cars derailed into a nearby field. The train had already passed through the residential area of the town when it derailed so nobody was injured. It is believed that soggy soil underneath the tracks caused the derailment.

ChaptersSettlementTrain wreck

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Sadorus, 1855 to 1950

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1855Post officeThe Sodorus post office opens
  3. 1884Post officeThe Sodorus post office closes
  4. 1884Post officeThe Sadorus post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1950On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
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.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Sadorus on the map, 1950 to 1998

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

Sadorus on the 1950 USGS mapSadorus on the 1975 USGS mapSadorus on the 1983 USGS mapSadorus on the 1998 USGS map1950Tuscola 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 Sadorus.

People over time

Sadorus, census by census

010020030040050018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 469

Between 250 and 469 people in every census since 1880.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Sadorus

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

See all →
Roger EbertAmerican film critic and author · b. 1942
Saul PerlmutterAmerican astrophysicist and Nobel laureate · b. 1959
James TobinAmerican economist · b. 1918
Robert W. HolleyAmerican biochemist · b. 1922
LudacrisAmerican rapper and actor · b. 1977
Lars Peter HansenAmerican economist · b. 1952
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Sadorus’s post office has been open since 1884. Another post office, Sodorus, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Sodorus
1855–1884
Sadorus
1884–today
18501940today

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

Questions about Sadorus’ history

What year was Sadorus founded?

The Sadorus post office opened in 1884, 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 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.