Founding year: the first Sheridan post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1872.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Sheridan’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sheridan is more historic than 53% 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 Sheridan’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 Sheridan’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 (±9.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1872 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
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 Sheridan’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The Village of Sheridan was settled as early as 1833 when Robert Rowe and his wife settled on Section 5 and 8 in what is now Mission Township. Prior to this, in 1826 Jesse Walker established a mission at the head of Mission Creek, just three miles from the present town of Sheridan. He became the first white settler in what is now Mission Township. In 1834, a Cholera Epidemic swept through the community, with a cemetery South of town near the present day prison as proof of this event. In 1844 Mission Point was established with the vote for a President and vice-president. Mission Point became known as Rowes Station in 1863, the Rowe farm consisted of three houses. Finally, in the summer of 1869 the village was platted and named Sheridan after General Phillip Sheridan. On June 24, 1872, the town of Sheridan voted forty-five to one to incorporate under the Old Statute of the State of…
Passages that mention Sheridan, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of LaSalle County, Illinois1877 · page 416Read the page →
Read the text
wife, Harriet Holderman, from Maine, came to Ob tawa in 1830; went to Pekin during the Black Hawk war, and to Holderman’s Grove in the spring of 1833; madea claim and settled where Sheridan now is in the fall of the same year, the first settler inthe town of Mission, excepting thoze connected with Jesse Walker's mission among the Indians, and Schermerhorn and Hazleton. He now lives in the
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
Sheridan, 1866 to 1903
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Sheridan post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1872.
How does Sheridan rank for history?
Sheridan is more historic than 53% 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 Sheridan?
36% of Sheridan’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.0 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1956.
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 Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
