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Bement, Illinois

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Bement Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61813. The Survey maps it on the Bement quadrangle. 1,484 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 686 feet above sea level.

Bement within Piatt County

On record in Bement

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 2 records

Population over time

2 figures

Bement fell from 1,730 to 1,484 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.

YearPeople Change
20101,730
20201,484-246 (-14%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 12 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.

In the county-history sources

7,637 words on this township

History of Piatt County; Together with a Brief History of Illinois from the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present Time, published 1883 names this settlement in its chapter on Bement Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The extreme northwestern portion of the township drains toward the Sangamon, while all the rest of the township is drained by the Lake Fork of the Okaw, which comes into the township in its north- eastern section, runs southwest and then southeast, leaving the township about the middle of its southern boundary line. The fall in the stream is very slight. After the rainy season the banks are soon overrun, and then for days and weeks the stream, through miles of its course, has the appearance of a lake or swamp ; and because of this slowness in discharging its waters, we suppose, the stream has been called Late Fork. The land traversed by the Lake Fork is very rich indeed, and when the channel of the stream is once deepened so that the surplus water can be turned from off the farming land, we anticipate that the finest crops in the country can be raised on what is now untillable land.

Passage source: History of Piatt County; Together with a Brief History of Illinois from the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present Time, published 1883.

Two railroads pass through this township. The Wabash road strikes the eastern boundary line about one mile from the northern boundary line, runs southwest through the township, crossing the western boundary line about three and one-half miles from the northwestern corner of the township. This road was the first one built in the county, and it has assisted greatly in the growth of the same. A road formerly known as the Chicago & Paducah railroad crosses the township nearly two miles from and runs parallel with the western boundary line of the township. This road now belongs to the great Wabash system. These roads cross at Bement.

Passage source: History of Piatt County; Together with a Brief History of Illinois from the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present Time, published 1883.

Early settlements. - From all accounts we consider that the first settlement in Bement township was made by "William Bailey, not long previous to 1854, in section 5. Another early settler was John Hughes, who lived near the head of Lake Fork timber. The first election in the township was held in his log house. There were not more than six voters in the entire township, and Jos. Moore was one of the judges. Mr. Smith Quick bought out Jno. Hughes, and Mr. Joseph Moore bought land of Mr. Bailey. Both Mr. Moore and Mr. Quick are yet living in the township.

Passage source: History of Piatt County; Together with a Brief History of Illinois from the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present Time, published 1883.

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 Bement Township - it names this place 35 more 35 times.

Fires near this place

2 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Bement in 2009, burning about 30 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2

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

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
6 February 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined30 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesLOOS
17 January 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesDEMMINK

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Piatt County

Storms near this place

21 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bement in 21 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 14 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 tornado, 1 flood. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2020Thunderstorm WindBement$150,000Numerous power poles were blown down along Route 105 between Bement and Monticello.
April 2020Thunderstorm WindBement$100,000Numerous power lines and trees were blown down.
April 2020Thunderstorm WindBement$30,000Several trees and power lines were blown down southwest of Bement.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindBement$15,000Large tree branches were blown down in Bement.
May 1998Thunderstorm WindBement$4,000As a severe thunderstorm moved southeast across southern Piatt county, it blew down numerous power lines, trees, and tree limbs. Also, the winds damaged several storage sheds and barns. No injuries were reported.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindBement$2,000A tree was blown down across a road in Bement.
May 2024Thunderstorm WindBement-Medium sized tree branches were blown down.
May 2024FloodBement-Farm fields were filled with standing water.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindBement-Several tree limbs were blown down.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindBement-Several large trees and tree limbs were blown down.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindBement-Trees were blown down in Bement.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindBement-A tree was blown onto a power line in Bement.
April 2006Thunderstorm WindBement-Ten power poles and numerous tree limbs blown down. Large outbuilding destroyed three miles west of town.
May 2006Tornado (F0)Bement-The tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage or injuries were reported.
June 2002Thunderstorm WindBement-Several trees were blown down north of Bement.
August 2001Thunderstorm WindBement-Power lines and trees were reported down.
August 2000HailBement-A supercell developed over northern Piatt County and moved to the south southeast . In Bement, one inch hail fell. As the storm approached the Milmine area, the hail grew in size. Four inch hail was reported in this area. Several vehicles in this area received hail damage. No injuries were reported.
April 2022HailBement-no account filed
May 2014HailBement-no account filed
June 2006HailBement-no account filed
August 2000HailBement-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Piatt 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Bodmann2.7 miles12
Piatt2.8 miles12
Voorhies3.8 miles12
Milmine4.3 miles11
Monticello7.3 miles14
Amenia8.5 miles14
Cerro Gordo8.6 miles11
Hammond8.7 miles12

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 BementAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2671736The 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 404159. 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.

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.