Andrew, Illinois

17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1907 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Fancy Creek Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62707. The Survey maps it on the Athens quadrangle. It stands 581 feet above sea level.

Andrew within Sangamon County

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 17 printed sheets

Matched 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.

1907 USGS Springfield quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1930 USGS Springfield quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
1940 USGS Springfield quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1958 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1961 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1966 USGS Athens quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
1985 USGS Springfield quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

In the county-history sources

3,434 words on this township

History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881 names this settlement in its chapter on Fancy Creek Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The date of the first settlement in what is now Fancy Creek township, was 1819. Among the earliest settlers were Stephen England and his son David, William Higgins, John Cline, Robert McClelland, Levi, Wyatt and William G. Cantrall, Thomas Constant, John Strode, George Power, EliphaletHawley, John Bracson, Aquilla Davis, Thomas Hargis, Thomas Strawbridge, Garrett Elkin, William F. Elkin, Thomas Brown and Andrew Clamo.

Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.

Stephen England was born June 12, IV^S, in Virginia. His pai'ents removed to Bath county, Kentucky. Stephen was there married about 1Y91, to Anna Harper. In 1813, the family moved to Ohio, and in the fall of 1818, to Madison county, Illinois. The following winter Stephen England, with two of his sons-in-laAv, came up to the San-ga-ma country to explore it. The nearest habitation to where Springfield now stands, was on the south bank of the Sangamon river, near Avheie the Chicago and Alton railroad crosses. They found a man named William Higgins living in a cabin there, which he had built in January, 1819. They remained over night with Mr. Higgins, and crossed to the north side of the river, each selecting a spot on which to make a home. In order to prevent others who might come after from choosing the same ground, they cut a few logs, laid them across each other in three piles, and each man cut his initials on a tree near by, as evidence thai the land was claimed. That was near what was soon called Higgins' creek, but is now called Cantrall's creek. They returned to their families, and early in March, 1819, Stephen England, his son David, his sons-in-law, Andrew Cline and Wyatt Cantrall, returned to their claims for the purpose of commencing improvements. The night after their arrival snow, fell about one foot deep, and the weather was colder than it had been at any time during the winter. They commenced work, and Mr. England and his son soon had their house up, roofed, and the door and chimney place cut out. The other two men had their materials on the ground. By that time the melting snow warned them that they must cross the river at once, or they might be delayed several weeks. They returned to their families, and attempted to move them, but the ground was so soft from melting snow that their teams were unequal to the task of drawing the wagons with their heavy loads, and they again left their families. The same men returned, accompanied by two of the daughters of Mr. England. They then completed their houses, cleared land, planted their crops, and returned to Madison county for their families, bringing them to their new homes about the first of June, 1819.

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 Fancy Creek Township.

Fires near this place

27 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 27 fires within 5 miles of Andrew between 2005 and 2014, burning about 199 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	10

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
26 September 2013	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	13-0000327
17 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	10308
11 September 2013	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	13-0000307
8 August 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	10259
8 July 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	10209
19 July 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	10228
5 May 2014	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	14-0000148
29 May 2013	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	13-0000179

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Sangamon County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Andrew: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Airport Landfill Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Sangamon County

Storms near this place

3 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Andrew in 3 storm reports between 2003 and 2023: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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
March 2023	Tornado (EF2)	Andrew	-	A tornado touched down in an open field one mile northwest of Sherman at 6:12 PM CDT. It tracked northeastward, causing damage to two houses and two outbuildings before crossing I-55. The tornado caused severe roof and siding damage to numerous homes and damaged many outbuildings and detached garages in a subdivision immediately east of I-55. It continued northeastward into a largely rural area, damaging two large barns at a horse farm and throwing sheet metal into open fields before dissipating just west of Wolf Creek about 2 miles southeast of Williamsville at 6:20 PM CDT.
May 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Andrew	-	Several trees were blown down in Carpenter Park just southwest of Sherman.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Andrew	-	Thunderstorm winds blew down numerous trees, tree limbs and power lines in a mile wide swath from near Andrew through Sherman then to the northside of Riverton ending near Barclay. A grain bin was damaged as well as a pole barn. No injuries were reported.

Every storm recorded in Sangamon County

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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Green Acres	1.8 miles	17
Sherman	1.9 miles	17
Peabody	2.4 miles	17
North Wind	2.7 miles	17
Streadle	3.2 miles	20
Knollwood	3.5 miles	17
Cantrall	3.5 miles	17
Devereux Heights	3.5 miles	20

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 Andrew	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q4756152	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 403518. 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.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, 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.