Danvers, Illinois

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1927 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Danvers Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61732. The Survey maps it on the Danvers quadrangle. 1,089 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 809 feet above sea level.

Danvers within McLean County

Population over time

3 figures

Danvers fell from 1,183 to 1,089 between 2000 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
2000	1,183
2010	1,154	-29 (-2%)
2020	1,089	-65 (-6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 13 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.

1927 USGS Danvers quadrangle1:62500
1930 USGS Danvers quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1958 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1961 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
1963 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
1970 USGS Danvers quadrangle1:24000
1985 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:100000
1989 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:100000
1990 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000

In the county-history sources

18,407 words on this township

The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois : Containing Two Hundred and Sixty-one Sketches of Old Settlers, a Complete Historical Sketch of the Black Hawk War and Descriptions of All Matters of Interest Relating to McLean County, published 1874 names this settlement in its chapter on Danvers Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

In December, 1818, the family of Rev. Mr. Mitchel moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, on Fancy Creek, about eight miles north of Springfield. They traveled in a wagon drawn by four ziorses. At one time the horses started to run and seemed to be unmanageable, when Mrs. Mitchel, who was a woman of remarkable resolution, ran forward, grasped the bridle of one of the lead horses and assisted in stopping them. On the way they met old Billy Hodge, who had come to the country and was returning eastward. The Indians were then numerous and occasionally troublesome. They were the Kickapoos, Pottawatomies, Delawares and others. At one time a band of Indians went to Springfield and became intoxicated, and on their return attempted to go into Mitchel's house, when he was absent ; but Mrs. Mitchel barred the door, and the dogs outside fought them. Mrs. Mitchel told the savages that her husband was sick, and insisted that they should leave ; but they hung around until nearly morning, banging against the door, yelling, whooping and lighting.

Passage source: The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois : Containing Two Hundred and Sixty-one Sketches of Old Settlers, a Complete Historical Sketch of the Black Hawk War and Descriptions of All Matters of Interest Relating to McLean County, published 1874.

Rev. Peyton Mitchel was active in the ministry and did good work. He preached the first sermon in Funk's Grove, and wherever he could find an opportunity he engaged in the work of the great Master. Churches were soon organized and schoolhouses were built, and Ebenezer Mitchel thinks the society at that time was much more reliable than it is at present. He thinks the promise of an old settler was much better than most people's bonds.

The deep snow fell in 1830 and '31. Mr. Mitchel took repeated measurements of its depth in the timber, where it had not drifted, and it there averaged forty inches. A crust on it was soon formed, and the wolves ran over it; but the sharp footed deer broke through.

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 Danvers Township - it names this place 26 more 26 times.

Fires near this place

2 since 2014

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Danvers in 2014, burning about 6 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
Smoking	1
Debris and open burning	1

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
21 March 2014	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	2014-45
24 February 2014	Smoking	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	2014-033

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in McLean County

Storms near this place

23 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Danvers in 23 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 11 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood, 1 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. 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
August 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Danvers	1 hurt, $3,500,000	Downburst winds of 70 to 80 mph produced a wide swath of damage from Danvers southeastward into the southwest side of Bloomington. One of the hardest hit locations along this path was the Apollo Acres subdivision just north of Illinois Route 9, where 159 homes sustained damage. 139 of those homes had awnings or shingles damaged, while 19 suffered minor roof and window damage, and 1 home had one-third of its roof torn off. Total damage in Apollo Acres was around $1 million. Other significant damage occurred along the path of the storm, including numerous downed trees, trailers blown over, and several large metal buildings with doors blown in and roofs torn off. Total damage to 30 businesses along the path was estimated at around $2.5 million. One minor injury was reported, as a car was hit by a wind-blown trailer.
August 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Danvers	$25,000	Numerous trees and tree branches were blown down in Danvers.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Danvers	$18,000	A tree was blown down onto a house southeast of Danvers. The roof of an old barn was blown off and numerous tree branches were knocked down as well.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Danvers	$3,000	From just south of Danvers to Bloomington, sporadic wind damage was observed. Minor crop damage was found, as well as, numerous downed trees. In Bloomington, numerous power lines and large tree limbs were blown down. One large tree limb fell onto a porch damaging it, then landed on a sport utility vehicle causing minor damage. No injuries were reported.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Danvers	$2,000	A large tree was uprooted.
March 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Danvers	-	A grain bin, tree, small sheds, playground set, garage door, and soffit were damaged.
April 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Danvers	-	A large tree limb was blown down.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Danvers	-	Numerous tree branches were blown down.
June 2006	Tornado (F0)	Danvers	-	A tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage was reported.
May 2004	Flash Flood	Danvers	-	Very heavy rain fell in a short amount of time causing numerous roads to become flooded.
October 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Danvers	-	Large tree blown down.
April 2001	Hail	Danvers	-	Thunderstorm moved out of Tazewell County into McLean County. Dime to walnut size hail was reported in Danvers, with dime to half dollar size hail reported west and north of Bloomington/Normal.
April 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Danvers	-	Thunderstorm winds damaged two buildings 2 miles south of Danvers. On one of the buildings the barn doors were blown off and up over a two story farm house. Also, at the same time a spotter in Danvers reported a 67 mph wind gust and damage to the grade school (roof flashing was blown off), as well as, a school bus being lifted up onto two wheels. A machine shed was damaged and numerous large tree limbs were blown down. No injuries were reported and no damage estimate was available.
January 2008	Hail	Danvers	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Danvers	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Danvers	-	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Danvers	-	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Danvers	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Danvers	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Danvers	-	no account filed
March 2002	Hail	Danvers	-	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Danvers	-	no account filed
April 1994	Hail	Danvers	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in McLean 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
Woodruff	2.9 miles	13
Carlock	4.4 miles	13
Twin Grove	5.7 miles	13
Yuton	6.2 miles	15
Stanford	6.9 miles	14
Covell	7.0 miles	13
Bloomington Heights	8.3 miles	13
Cardinal Court	9.5 miles	15

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 Danvers	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1376830	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 406948. 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.