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History · Silver Creek Township

38% of Silver Creek Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1942 on.

0on the National Register
38%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory

What stands out about Silver Creek 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 Silver Creek Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages1 post office opened and closed inside today’s Silver Creek Township, and 4 old place names are still on the map.Old housesHalf of Silver Creek Township’s homes were built before 1953.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Silver Creek Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Silver Creek 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

Another post office, South Freeport, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Browns MillSouth FreeportTimber Ridge Mobile Home ParkValley Creek
Gone or out of use
Blanchard SchoolschoolBrownsmill QuarrymineCollman SchoolschoolCrane SchoolschoolDwyer QuarrymineEder SchoolschoolElmwood SchoolschoolFranzmeir FieldairportNeiman QuarryminePrairie Hill SchoolschoolSilver Creek Center SchoolschoolSilver Creek SchoolschoolState Road ChurchchurchSunnyside Schoolschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Silver Creek Township
Cranes GroveGund

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

The story

How Silver Creek Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Silver Creek Township.

Read it all →

Thomas Craine first settled Silver Creek Township in August 1835.

Brown's Mill was built four miles east of Freeport on the Pecatonica River by Caleb W. Brown in 1857. The stone grist mill closed in 1903 and was converted to a power plant by A.J. Goddard in 1908. For a short time it generated power for the street car system in Freeport. After a fire in 1950 partially destroyed the building it was rebuilt and converted to a residence. It was still standing on Brown's Mill Road in 2014.

ChaptersMills

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Silver Creek Township, 1844 to 1942

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1844Born hereStephen Alfred Forbes is born here
  3. 1892Post officeThe South Freeport post office opens
  4. 1893Post officeThe South Freeport post office closes
  5. 20th century
  6. 1942On 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

Silver Creek Township on the map, 1942 to 1983

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

Silver Creek Township on the 1942 USGS mapSilver Creek Township on the 1983 USGS map1942Forreston 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 Silver Creek Township.

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Lancaster TownshipIts storyBFreeport3 historic placesAFreeport Township3 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townFlorence Township1 historic placeA−Ridott TownshipIts storyB−

Questions about Silver Creek 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 Wikipedia, 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.