Sunbury Township was named by William K. Brown after his former town in Pennsylvania. The township was organized April 6, 1858, by the election of J. O. Corey as supervisor; J. S. Cumming, clerk; T. F. Norton, assessor; A. S. Blakeslee, collector; Andrew Sprague, John Gower and R. C. Myer as commissioner of highways; Isaac Ames and A. J. Hopkins, constables. Only 19 votes were cast at the election.
The early settlers of Sunbury Township found mostly rolling prairie with little timber. Early settlement was primarily near Mud Creek in the southwest corner of the township.
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Sunbury Township
BlackstoneHadleySunbury
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From the old history books
What they wrote about Sunbury Township in 1878
Passages that mention Sunbury Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The History of Livingston County, Illinois1878 · page 544Read the page →
Read the text
The first school, as noted in Sunbury Township, was taught in the northwestern part of the township by Catharine Sprague. As the grove about Mud Creek was partly in Esmen and partly in Sunbury, so, consequently, the first settlements were made near each other in what is now denominated the Two Sections. Of course the history of the two sections of the neighborhood is the same. They had the same school, the same religious meetings, and whatever was an event in one was known and commented on by all ; and until the arbitrary lines made by the commissioners were drawn, this was called the Mud
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
Sunbury Township, 1857 to 1958
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sunbury Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1958Odell 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 Sunbury Township.
People over time
Sunbury Township, census by census
Between 229 and 246 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Sunbury Township’s Wikipedia page.
Famous people
Famous people close to Sunbury Township
Nobody well known was born in Sunbury Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
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), 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.
