Chatham, Illinois

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1922 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Chatham Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62629. The Survey maps it on the Chatham quadrangle. 14,377 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 599 feet above sea level.

Chatham within Sangamon County

On record in Chatham

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

Caldwell Farmsteadlisted 1984
Sugar Creek Covered Bridgelisted 1978

Population over time

2 figures

Chatham grew from 11,500 to 14,377 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	11,500
2020	14,377	+2,877 (+25%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 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.

1922 USGS Divernon quadrangle1:62500
1924 USGS Divernon quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1958 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1961 USGS Chatham quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
1961 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1985 USGS Springfield quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
1998 USGS Chatham quadrangle1:24000

In the county-history sources

17,668 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 Chatham Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The township of Chatham is situated in the southern part of Sangamon county, being township fourteen north, range six west of the third principal meridian. Originally, the township was three-fourths prairie, the timber land being confined to points along Panther and Lick creeks The fears of the early settlers have never been realized that the timber would soon all be destroyed, for in 1881 there is more timber in the aggregate, but not same quality, than when John Campbell selected his land on Lick creek, and cleared away timber for his farm.

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.

The first settler of Chatham township was John Campbell, in 1818, who arrived on the 22d day of Mai'ch, and located on Lick creek, in the west part of the town. John Campbell was born November 4, 1790, in Carter county, Tennessee. His father, Jeremiah Campbell, settled there before the American Revolution, and was a soldier during the Revolution, under General Francis Marion. He lived to be about one hundred years old. His youngest son, Jackson, was the owner of the old homestead at the beginning of the great rebellion. The farm had been in the family about one hundred years. John Campbell enlisted in a company from Carter county, in the second war with England, served six months, re-enlisted, and served until March, 1815. He was an ensign in the last campaign, and drew a pension to the end of his life. He remained in Tennessee until 1818, when he moved to Madison county, Illinois, and was there married, November 6, 1818, to LavinaParkison, who was born February 21, 1803. They had six children - Alfred C, William P., Jeremiah, Josiah W., Peter C, and Caroline.

Mrs. Lavinah Campbell died December 13, 1853, and John Campbell was married in 1855, to M rs. Margery Carson, whose maiden name was Parkison, a sister of his first wife. She died March 5, 1870. John Campbell died February, 18Y5, on the farm where he settled in 1818, five miles west of Chatham, leaving a large estate, which he had accumulated by industry and economy. He, as nearly all the earliest settlers, took part in the Black Hawk war. The first mill in the county, built by Daniel Lisle, was sold by him, and after changing hands once or twice, was bought by Mr. John Campbell, and moved to his farm on Lick creek, where he put it up and ran it for years, each customer bringing his own horses to run it. That kind of mills went out of use long ago, and one of the burrs was used by Mr, Campbell as a doorstep, to the day of his death.

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 Chatham Township - it names this place 85 more 85 times.

Storms near this place

60 of 81 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chatham in 81 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 41 hail, 36 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 1 lightning. 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
September 2019	Lightning	Chatham	$100,000	A barn was struck by lightning and burned down.
April 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	$45,000	Several trees and power lines were blown down. One house suffered roof damage.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	$25,000	Numerous trees, large tree limbs, and power lines were blown down. Measured gust was reported at Springfield airport.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	$15,000	Power lines were blown down east of Chatham.
May 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	$10,000	Five to eight trees were snapped.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	$5,000	Several large tree branches were blown down.
May 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	$5,000	A large cottonwood tree was blown down onto power lines, resulting in a four hour power outage.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	$3,000	Two 1.5 to 2-foot diameter trees were blown down. One of the trees fell onto a fence.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	$2,000	An 8-inch diameter tree was snapped at the base.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	$2,000	A large section of a Bradford Pear tree was broken off due to high winds.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	$2,000	A tree was blown down in Chatham.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	$1,000	A large tree was blown down.
March 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Powerlines were blown down.
May 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Several small tree branches were blown down.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	A large tree was blown down and blocked a subdivision road.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Numerous large tree limbs were blown down.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Numerous large trees were blown down across southern Sangamon County, mainly south of I-72.
December 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Power lines were blown down near Route 4 and Cottonwood Drive south of Walgreens.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	A 1.5-foot diameter tree limb was blown down on Lakewood Drive near Sugar Creek Stables.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Several large tree branches were blown down.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	A large tree was blown down in Bridgeview Park.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	A few tree limbs were snapped and shingles were blown off a roof.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Several large tree limbs were blown down onto a road.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	A 4-inch diameter tree limb was blown onto power lines.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	A power line was blown down on the 400 block of Main Street.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Numerous trees were blown down on the Piper Glen Golf Course just north of Chatham.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	The bleachers, goal posts, and fence at a school were damaged. A tree was also blown down in town.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	A large tree branch was snapped off.
July 2008	Hail	Chatham	-	Nickel sized hail was reported one mile north of Chatham.
April 2006	Tornado (F1)	Chatham	-	The tornado removed roofing material from several new construction homes.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	A tree was blown down.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Numerous trees and power lines blown down. Also, some minor house damage was reported in Chatham and a Ham radio tower was blown down in Rochester.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Several trees and a sign blown down at a middle school.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Few trees and power lines blown down.
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Several trees were blown down.
August 2004	Tornado (F0)	Chatham	-	A tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage or injuries were reported.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	A large tree was snapped off, siding blown off of two houses and a basketball post was bent in half.
May 2003	Tornado (F0)	Chatham	-	A tornado briefly touched down west of Chatham. Several trees were blown down and a few homes sustained siding damage. Also, an unoccupied semi was blown over.
May 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	In Chatham, thunderstorm winds blew a 50 foot by 50 foot section of a metal roof off of a storage facility. Also, on the south side of Springfield a large tree was blown down and another one was uprooted.
April 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Several trees were blown down.
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Chatham	-	Thunderstorm winds blew down a large tree 3 miles east of Chatham.
February 2026	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
April 2025	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
July 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed
July 2023	Hail	Chatham	-	no account filed

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
Woodside	3.3 miles	14
Irwins Park	3.6 miles	14
Cotton Hill	4.2 miles	14
Glenarm	4.7 miles	13
Toronto	4.7 miles	14
Curran	5.8 miles	12
Coleman	5.9 miles	19
Beamington	6.0 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 Chatham	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1916590	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 405992. 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.