BlockAlma, Illinois
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Alma Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62807. The Survey maps it on the Salem North quadrangle. 318 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 623 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresAlma fell from 320 to 318 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 320 | |
| 2020 | 318 | -2 (-1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1934 USGS Salem quadrangle1:62500
- 1938 USGS Salem quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Belleville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Belleville quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Salem North quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Olney quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
746 words on this townshipBrinkerhoff's History of Marion County, Illinois, published 1909 names this settlement in its chapter on Alma Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
The village of Alma is on the northwest was first laid out by John S. Martin, in corner of the township on the Chicago 1854, and the Martin, French and Tilden branch of the Illinois Central Railroad. It addition was platted about the same time.
Passage source: Brinkerhoff's History of Marion County, Illinois, published 1909.
Doctor Hutton built the first store house in 1853, and was the first postmaster. Smith and Hawkins conducted the first blacksmith shop and John Ross the first grist and saw mill. Jefferson Hawkins was the first Methodist preacher; John Ross, the first Christian preacher, and was instrumental in building the first church in which he preached several years and from which he was buried, by the writer, about eighteen years ago. The Methodist Episcopal church was built in 1871. The first school-house was burned and the second was built in 1866 and 1867. It was a two-room building, but it is not now used. Some of the members of the Christian church conceived the thought of a Christian college at Alma. The Rosses and others gave land and money and a good two-story school-house, or college, was built and a college opened, but after a few years' struggle the property was
Passage source: Brinkerhoff's History of Marion County, Illinois, published 1909.
The station of Brubaker on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad is an active little hamlet. It contains two stores, a saw-mill, blacksmith shop and the Alma town house. It was laid out bv E. E. Brubaker, who built a two-story store room upon the completion of the railroad in 1895, and he has conducted a flourishing business ever since. Much produce is also shipped from here, and also live stock. The railroad company just after the Chicago & Eastern Illinois took charge opened an extensive ballastburning experiment and acres of clay was dug and mixed with coal and burned, but for some reason the work was stopped, and all that remains is a considerable body of water, forming an artificial lake.
Passage source: Brinkerhoff's History of Marion County, Illinois, published 1909.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Alma Township - it names this place 2 more 2 times.
Storms near this place
9 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alma in 9 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 5 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alma | $20,000 | Wind gusts estimated at 75 mph downed trees and power lines and caused some roof damage. Much of the roof damage was caused by trees falling on structures. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alma | $5,000 | Emergency management officials reported numerous trees and power lines down in the Alma area. One tree fell on a house and another on a car. |
| April 2024 | Hail | Alma | - | A report of 1 inch hailstones follows the report of 1.5 inch hail in Clinton County. Additional locations in Marion County impacted include Sandoval, Odin, and Salem. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alma | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down a couple of trees, tree limbs and power lines around town. |
| May 2003 | Hail | Alma | - | The County Sheriff reported 3/4 inch hail. |
| March 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alma | - | no account filed |
| July 2013 | Hail | Alma | - | no account filed |
| April 2012 | Hail | Alma | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alma | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Alma | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2671629 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 403451. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.