Prior to and following European settlement in Illinois, Tiskilwa (formerly called Indiantown) was a Potawatomi village. In 1836, Augustus Langworthy platted and established a town called Windsor where Tiskilwa now stands. In 1840, Windsor and Indiantown were consolidated and renamed to Tiskilwa. Tiskilwa was then officially incorporated in 1856. Tiskilwa emerged as a regional economic and cultural center integrating its own administrative capacities, schools, churches and shops serving a small population of townspeople and farm families from the surrounding 3 to 5 miles (5 to 8 km). It was a small community whose center was three blocks of Main Street around which were located its churches, cafes, taverns, grocery stores, beauty parlors, barbershops and other businesses.
Tiskilwa’s post office has been open since 1852. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Indiantown
1835–1852
Windsor
1836–1850
Tiskilwa
1852–today
18301930today
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 Tiskilwa in 1877
Passages that mention Tiskilwa, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The voters and tax-payers of Bureau county, Illinois1877 · page 159Read the page →
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The former now lives in Tiskilwa, the latter in Chicago. Soon after the completion of the railroad in 1853, a round-house was built, capable of holding one engine. It has been enlarged to ten times that capacity.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The voters and tax-payers of Bureau county, Illinois1877 · page 262Read the page →
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The Town of Tiskilwa is in both Arispie and Indiantown Townships, and some names may have accidentally crept in the wrong township. A DAMS JOHN, Tiskilwa; teaming; Lib; born Miss.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Tiskilwa, 1834 to 1933
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
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