BlockBishop Hill, Illinois
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1931 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Weller Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61419. The Survey maps it on the Galva quadrangle. 113 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 781 feet above sea level.
On record in Bishop Hill
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 1 record
Colony Steeple BuildingNational Historic Landmark · listed 1970
Population over time
2 figuresBishop Hill fell from 128 to 113 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 | 128 | |
| 2020 | 113 | -15 (-12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 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.
- 1931 USGS Galva quadrangle1:48000
- 1940 USGS Galva quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1944 USGS Galva quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Galva quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Aledo quadrangle1:100000
- 1989 USGS Aledo quadrangle1:100000
- 1991 USGS Galva quadrangle1:24000
In the county-history sources
11,807 words on this townshipHistory of Henry County, Illinois : It's Taxpayers and Voters; Containing Also, a Biographical Directory, a Condensed History of the State; Map of the County; a Business Directory...etc, published 1877 names this settlement in its chapter on Weller Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
ANDERSON HOKAN, Farmer, Sec. 16; P.O. Bishop Hill; born Sweden, Aug. 2, 1822; Rep; owns 200 acres of land, value $10,000; he lived in Sweden thirty-five years, and came to this country in 1857; came to this state, Henry Co. same year; has been here twenty years next July; held office School Director; married Mary Christian Johnson, Feb. 28, 1862; she was born Sweden, Dec. 15, 1832; have four children, three boys and one girl: Anna M.t John, Edwin, Alfred.
Passage source: History of Henry County, Illinois : It's Taxpayers and Voters; Containing Also, a Biographical Directory, a Condensed History of the State; Map of the County; a Business Directory...etc, published 1877.
ANDERSON LARS W. Harness-maker, Bishop Hill; born Sweden; Jan. 14, 1843; Dem; Lib; he lived in Sweden three years, and came to this country 1846, and came to this state and county, to Bishop Hill, with colony; has lived here thirty years; married Christine Swanson in June, 1868; she was born in Sweden, April 8, 1848; they have two children, sons.
Passage source: History of Henry County, Illinois : It's Taxpayers and Voters; Containing Also, a Biographical Directory, a Condensed History of the State; Map of the County; a Business Directory...etc, published 1877.
BERGLiUND ANDREW, Farmer, Sec. 12; P.O. Bishop Hill; born Sweden, Jan. 14, 1814; Rep; Meth; owns 49 acres land, value $2,500; lived in Sweden thirty-two years, and came to this country in 1847; came to Bishop Hill, Henry Co. Ills, in June, 1847, and has lived here thirty years; one of oldest settlers; left the colony in 1861; married Brita Olsen in 1840; she was horn in Sweden, Jan. 20, 1807; she had four children; they have two sons, Eric and Jonas; Eric Berglund is a graduate of Military Academy, West Point, served in the War as Lieut, at age of seventeen, and has been in Government Service since the War, in Engineers' Department.
Passage source: History of Henry County, Illinois : It's Taxpayers and Voters; Containing Also, a Biographical Directory, a Condensed History of the State; Map of the County; a Business Directory...etc, published 1877.
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 Weller Township - it names this place 73 more 73 times.
Storms near this place
11 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bishop Hill in 11 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 7 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. The reports record 4 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1996 | Tornado (F3) | Bishop Hill | 4 hurt, $10,000,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bishop Hill | $10,000 | Damage to a farm house with a machine shed destroyed near Bishop Hill with 3 or 4 power poles broken off on Bishop Hill Road. In Galva, numerous power lines were downed with some trees with siding from an apartment building blown off. A 5 inch diameter limb was downed that damaged the library roof in Galva. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Bishop Hill | - | A trained spotter reported that mostly smaller hailstones had fallen but a few of the stones were quarter sized. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bishop Hill | - | Galva City ESA reported a 52 knot thunderstorm wind gust. |
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bishop Hill | - | Numerous tree limbs reported down across the county with powerlines down due to wind. A few houses had shingles blown off. |
| April 2012 | Hail | Bishop Hill | - | Dime size hail covered the ground near Bishop Hill. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Bishop Hill | - | A report of dime sized hail was relayed from the Galva ESDA. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Bishop Hill | - | Hail increased from dime to quarter sized. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Bishop Hill | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Bishop Hill | - | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Hail | Bishop Hill | - | 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 Bishop Hill | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2894880 | 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 404474. 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.