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History · Salem Township

25% of Salem Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1985 on.

0on the National Register
25%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory

What stands out about Salem 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 Salem Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Salem Township, and 2 old place names are still on the map.Old housesHalf of Salem Township’s homes were built before 1955.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Salem Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Salem Township’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
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Uniontown
1849–1867
Douglass
1857–1878
Douglas
1878–1954
18401930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
DouglasUniontown
Gone or out of use
Bear SchoolschoolCorey SchoolschoolCox SchoolschoolPease Hill SchoolschoolPleasant Grove SchoolschoolSalem Center SchoolschoolShissler Farm Airportairport
4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Salem Township
BlakesleeSummitt - DouglasUniontownYates City

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

The story so far

Salem Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Salem Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Salem Township is one of twenty-one townships in Knox County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2020 census, its population was 926 and it contained 469 housing units.

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,003 to 926 (-8%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Salem Township, 1849 to 1985

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1849Post officeThe Uniontown post office opens
  3. 1857Post officeThe Douglass post office opens
  4. 1867Post officeThe Uniontown post office closes
  5. 1869Born hereOwen B. West is born here
  6. 1878Post officeThe Douglass post office closes
  7. 1878Post officeThe Douglas post office opens
  8. 20th century
  9. 1954Post officeThe Douglas post office closes
  10. 1985On 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.
Add from your album
On the map

Salem Township on the map in 1985

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Salem Township.

Salem Township on the 1985 USGS map1985Galesburg sheet · 1:100,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Salem Township.

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Farmington Township1 historic placeAElmwood Township1 historic placeAElba TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMaquon TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Salem Township’s history

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 Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.