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Bentley, Illinois

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1933 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Harmony Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62321. The Survey maps it on the Bentley quadrangle. 30 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 679 feet above sea level.

Bentley within Hancock County

Population over time

2 figures

Bentley fell from 35 to 30 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
201035
202030-5 (-14%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 14 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

6,358 words on this township

History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Harmony Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Township 4 - 6, with a harmonious name, is seven-eighths prairie-land, there being a few sections of partly broken and roughtimbered land on the head-waters of Bronson's creek, and another small body on another tributary of Crooked creek. A portion of tliis township is rich flat prairie, valuable for meadow; and a large part is sufficiently rolling for corn and grain. It has flne farms, and some rich and enterprising farmers. This township, being so largely prairie, was not settled as early as the townships surrounding it. It contains two villages on the T., W. & W. railroad, Bentley and Denver, both small places but doing considerable local business.

Passage source: History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws, published 1880.

Bentley lies ten miles west from St. Mary's and five southerly from Carthage, and was laid out in August, 1863, by John Sutton, Jr., and first called after his name, but for some cause changed to Bentley. It lies just south of the well-known Big Meadow. Postmasters in Bentley - T. J. Bates, A. R. Robinson, J. A. James, pi'esent incumbent.

Passage source: History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws, published 1880.

B. W. Beijler, farmer, sec. 11; P. 0., Bentley; was born in Page county, Va., in 1833, and is the son of Samnel and Eliza (Wood) Beyler; has had a common-school education; as a farmer and dealer in stock for 15 years he has been successful. In 1856 he married Ann R. Lionberger, a native of Virginia, and they have had 2 children, Ardella, born April 7, 1860, and Willie H.", June 25, 1870. His immigration to tliis county was also in 1856. In politics he is a Democrat, and he is a studious reader. His father was killed during the last war by some desperadoes because he had said that the North would whip the South; he was taken out and shot down like a brute and left lying on the ground for some time. He was an intelligent, well-posted man.

Passage source: History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws, published 1880.

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 Harmony Township - it names this place 8 more 8 times.

Fires near this place

2 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Bentley in 2003, burning about 11 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
Equipment and vehicle use2

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
30 October 2003Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
28 October 2003Equipment and vehicle use10 acresIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hancock County

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Bentley: 2 past producers, 1 plant. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Mo-Mac Quarry & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Carthage City PitStonePast Producer
Hancock City PitStonePast Producer

Every working recorded in Hancock County

Storms near this place

12 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bentley in 12 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 6 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash 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
June 2011Thunderstorm WindBentley$250,000Wind gusts in excess of 70 mph blew down several trees and large limbs in Bentley, IL around 145 am CDT June 27. Some roads were blocked by the tree debris. In addition, some buildings and homes were damaged and a new Morton building on the north side of Bentley was strewn across the freeway. Some of the trees and limbs fell onto a few homes.
July 2003Thunderstorm WindBentley$60,000Trees and power lines down
April 2024Thunderstorm WindBentley-A public report of a tree down.
March 2017Thunderstorm WindBentley-Several 8 to 12 inch in diameter tree branches were down in a yard. A large aluminum roof was off a barn across a portion of Highway 33 west of town.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindBentley-Winds were estimated to gust up to 60 to 70 MPH. This was a delayed report and the time was estimated from local radar data.
July 2012HailBentley-A COOP oberver measured hail the size of dimes to quarters near Bentley.
July 2010Flash FloodBentley-Heavy rain resulted in flash flooding of the northern part of Bentley, IL during the evening of July 7.
September 2005HailBentley-0.70 to 0.88 inch hail from co-op observer.
April 2001HailBentley-Quarter sized hail covering the ground over a half mile swath. Snowplows dispatched to clear roads. Reported by law enforcement.
August 2001HailBentley-A trained spotter reported 0.75 inch hail
April 2013HailBentley-no account filed
May 1995HailBentley-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hancock 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
Denver3.7 miles14
Basco4.8 miles14
Middle Creek4.9 miles14
Carthage5.1 miles14
West Point7.2 miles14
Elvaston8.1 miles14
Bowen8.1 miles13
McCall8.7 miles14

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 BentleyAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q577560The 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 404186. 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.