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History · Wilton Township

39% of Wilton Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1949 on and old-book passages.

0on the National Register
39%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about Wilton 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 Wilton Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Wilton Township, and 3 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Wilton Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Wilton 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

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Wallingford
1847–1901
Wilton Center
1875–1901
18401930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
WallingfordWiltonWilton Center
Gone or out of use
Hykes Grove SchoolschoolLamphere SchoolschoolMcGowan SchoolschoolWallingford Schoolschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Wilton Township
Mount Saint PatrickWilton Center

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

The story so far

Wilton Township, in brief

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

Wilton is located northeast of Wilton Center, Illinois, northwest of Andres and south of Frankfort. Wilton is the smallest Unincorporated community in Will County. It is smaller than Andres with a population of approximately 20 people, and at one point was simply a rail depot for the now-removed Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota line.

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 841 to 799 (-5%).

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

From the old history books

What they wrote about Wilton Township in 1878

Passages that mention Wilton Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Wilton Township formerly embraced the township of Peotone, but was separated from it by order of the Board of Supervisors in 1858. The township, as now constituted, embraces all of Town 38 north, Range 11 east of the Third
The history of Will County, Illinois, containing a history of the county ..1878 · page 625Read the page →
Read the text

Wilton Township formerly embraced the township of Peotone, but was separated from it by order of the Board of Supervisors in 1858. The township, as now constituted, embraces all of Town 38 north, Range 11 east of the Third

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

Wilton Township, 1847 to 1949

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1847Post officeThe Wallingford post office opens
  3. 1875Post officeThe Wilton Center post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1901Post officeThe Wallingford post office closes
  6. 1901Post officeThe Wilton Center post office closes
  7. 1949On 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.

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On the map

Wilton Township on the map, 1949 to 1990

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

Wilton Township on the 1949 USGS mapWilton Township on the 1953 USGS mapWilton Township on the 1973 USGS mapWilton Township on the 1990 USGS map1949Peotone 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 Wilton Township.

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Florence TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townManhattan TownshipIts storyC−Peotone Township2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Wilton 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 U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.