Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1905 on.
The Cherry Valley Township post office opened in 1829, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Cherry Valley (1829), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cherry Valley Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cherry Valley Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cherry Valley Township.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
From Wikipedia’s history of Cherry Valley Township.
Cherry Valley was named after Cherry Valley, New York. The name was suggested by Josiah Creery, a settler from Richfield, New York, a settlement near the namesake.
This was the birth place of June Rose Colby (1856–1941), emeritus professor of literature at Illinois State University.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nobody well known was born in Cherry Valley Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Cherry Valley, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Cherry Valley Township post office opened in 1829, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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, 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.
