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History · Sallis

Sallis’ post office opened in 1874, and 13% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Simmons Farmhouse. Below: maps from 1964 on and the census since 1880.

1874first post office
1on the National Register
13%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Photo: NatalieMaynor from Jackson, Mississippi, USA · CC BY 2.0
Quick answers

How Sallis began

When was Sallis founded?

1874

The Sallis post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 132 in 18802020 census: 131152 years
Founding year: the first Sallis post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Sallis’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Sallis’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Sallis’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
People over time

Sallis, census by census

010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 364

Peaked at 364 in 1930; 131 people lived here in 2020.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

The story

How Sallis came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Sallis.

Read it all →

Sallis was founded in 1874, and named for Dr. James D. Sallis, the former owner of the town site.

By 1906, Sallis had a post-office, school, steam grist mill, and several churches. The population was estimated at 850.

Sallis is located along a now-abandoned section of the Illinois Central Railroad, and a station was located there.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Sallis, 1874 to 1964

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1874Post officeThe Sallis post office opens
  3. 1887Born hereDavid H. Glass is born here
  4. 20th century
  5. 1930CensusPopulation peaks at 364
  6. 1964On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Sallis, decade by decade

Today1 recent
On the map

Sallis on the map, 1964 to 1982

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

Sallis on the 1964 USGS mapSallis on the 1982 USGS map1964Durant sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Sallis.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Sallis

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
4
each building in a district counts
first listed
2021
Simmons Farmhouse
Buildings
All 1 listings

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Questions about Sallis’ history

What year was Sallis founded?

The Sallis post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Sallis?

One place: the Simmons Farmhouse (listed 2021).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
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 Wikimedia Commons (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.