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History · Thawville

Thawville’s post office opened in 1872, and 54% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1948 on and the census since 1910.

1872first post office

0on the National Register

54%homes built before 1940

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Photo: Nick Number · CC BY 4.0

Quick answers

How Thawville began

When was Thawville founded?

1872

The Thawville post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 318 in 19102020 census: 215154 years

Founding year: the first Thawville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Thawville’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 Thawville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Thawville’s homes were built before 1938.

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Start Thawville’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Thawville’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 so far

Thawville, in brief

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

Thawville is a village in Ridgeland Township, Iroquois County, Illinois, United States. The population was 215 at the 2020 census. Thawville is named after Pittsburgh railroad magnate William Thaw Sr., who visited the town only once.

Its first post office opened in 1872. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 241 to 215 (-11%).

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

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

Thawville on the map, 1948 to 1986

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

1948Buckley 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 Thawville.

People over time

Thawville, census by census

Between 215 and 318 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Questions about Thawville’s history

What year was Thawville founded?

The Thawville post office opened in 1872, 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 →

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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 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.

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