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.
Population over time
2 figuresBentley 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 35 | |
| 2020 | 30 | -5 (-14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 14 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.
- 1933 USGS Carthage quadrangle1:62500
- 1937 USGS Carthage quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000
- 1974 USGS Bentley quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Keokuk quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1990 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
6,358 words on this townshipHistory 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 2003Regional 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 use | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 October 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 28 October 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 acres | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mo-Mac Quarry & Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Plant | ||
| Carthage City Pit | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Hancock City Pit | Stone | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
12 since 1995Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bentley | $250,000 | Wind 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 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bentley | $60,000 | Trees and power lines down |
| April 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bentley | - | A public report of a tree down. |
| March 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bentley | - | 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 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bentley | - | 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 2012 | Hail | Bentley | - | A COOP oberver measured hail the size of dimes to quarters near Bentley. |
| July 2010 | Flash Flood | Bentley | - | Heavy rain resulted in flash flooding of the northern part of Bentley, IL during the evening of July 7. |
| September 2005 | Hail | Bentley | - | 0.70 to 0.88 inch hail from co-op observer. |
| April 2001 | Hail | Bentley | - | Quarter sized hail covering the ground over a half mile swath. Snowplows dispatched to clear roads. Reported by law enforcement. |
| August 2001 | Hail | Bentley | - | A trained spotter reported 0.75 inch hail |
| April 2013 | Hail | Bentley | - | no account filed |
| May 1995 | Hail | Bentley | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denver | 3.7 miles | 14 | |
| Basco | 4.8 miles | 14 | |
| Middle Creek | 4.9 miles | 14 | |
| Carthage | 5.1 miles | 14 | |
| West Point | 7.2 miles | 14 | |
| Elvaston | 8.1 miles | 14 | |
| Bowen | 8.1 miles | 13 | |
| McCall | 8.7 miles | 14 |
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 Bentley | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q577560 | 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 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.







