Galva, Illinois

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1931 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Galva Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61434. The Survey maps it on the Galva quadrangle. 2,470 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 840 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Galva within Henry County

On record in Galva

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

Galva Opera Houselisted 1982
Olof Johnson Houselisted 1982

Population over time

2 figures

Galva fell from 2,589 to 2,470 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	2,589
2020	2,470	-119 (-5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 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.

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

13,482 words on this township

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 names this settlement in its chapter on Galva Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The idea of building a town upon this site was first entertained in the year 185o. While Messrs. J. M. and Wm. L. Wiley were traveling from Peoria Comity to Rock Island in the Spring of that year, they were attracted by the beauty of the surrounding country, and halted their team on the ground that now forms College Park, across which the old trail led. Standing in their buggy and looking out upon the scene, one of them remarked to the other : -' Let us buy the land and lay out a town." At this time there were only two or three buildings to be seen from that point, and the country around was one vast sea of prairie, over which the deer were still roaming at will. The land was shortly purchased by them, and, after negotiating with the C. B. & Q. Railroad Company a full year, they finally secured the location of a depot upon their purchase by donating the land now owned and occupied by the company in the center of the town. In the Fall of the year succeeding its purchase (1854), and about the time that the arrangement with the railroad company was effected, the town was laid out, in its present shape, by the gentlemen mentioned. The cars commenced running in December of the same year.

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.

After the depot was located the Messrs. Wiley purchased about fifty acres of land, on the south side of the town, from George Farr, and subsequently sold an undivided interest in a certain number of lots to the Bishop Hill Swedish Colony, then in their most prosperous days, and afterwards a large number of lots to Jacob Emery. Both of these parties gave their money and influence to forward the interests of the new town.

Owing to the large purchases of the Swedish Colony in the new town, they were granted the privilege of being its sponsors in baptism and bestowing upon it the name which it was to bear. Olof Johnson, one of the earliest settlers, accordingly christened it G-efle, the name of a populous town in Sweden. This name was afterward corrupted or anglicised to Galva, a name new and unheard of but corresponding as nearly as possible to the Swedish name in pronunciation.

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 Galva Township - it names this place 98 more 98 times.

Storms near this place

60 of 104 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Galva in 104 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 55 hail, 31 thunderstorm wind, 8 tornado, 3 flash flood. The reports record 5 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 (F0)	Galva	4 hurt, $10,000,000	no account filed
May 2017	Tornado (EF2)	Galva	1 hurt, $40,000	Tornado was rated EF-2 with peak winds of 120 mph, a path length of 1.29 miles and a max width 50 yards. Damage was to two snapped power poles, one home with significant damage to shingles. Another house had had roof completely removed and blew out doors with one minor injury at this location.
April 2003	Hail	Galva	$500,000	no account filed
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	$400,000	no account filed
May 2003	Tornado (F0)	Galva	$400,000	no account filed
April 2003	Flash Flood	Galva	$250,000	IL 17 & US 34 flooded
July 2003	Hail	Galva	$100,000	no account filed
November 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	$50,000	A supercell tracked across portions of Henry county producing a swath of straight-line downburst winds as the thunderstorm moved rapidly to the northeast at 60 mph.\|Tree damage was first noted at the Galva cemetery near the county line, where roughly 10 pine trees were either snapped at the base or uprooted. The largest of which was 2 feet in diameter and tossed 25 yards to the east. About a dozen of the taller headstones were toppled from their bases. Farther to the northeast, sheet metal was torn from the roof of a Tyson building, and scattered into the surrounding fields a quarter mile to the east. Off of Route 78 southeast of Kewanee, a half dozen pine trees were snapped at the trunk with surrounding tall grass matted down to the east. Farther down the road to the east a corn crib was destroyed when it shifted off it's foundation. Continuing to the east, there were roughly 40 trees in a 35 year old wind break that were snapped at the trunks. There was also hail damage noted with chipped paint on west facing walls and scarred tree trunks. Ending 3 miles east southeast of Kewanee a barn roof was mostly ripped off, scattering debris a couple hundred yards to the east. Based on the damage, winds were estimated to be between 80 to 100 mph. At some locations the damage swath was one-half mile wide in southeast Henry county, Illinois.
April 2003	Hail	Galva	$50,000	no account filed
April 2003	Hail	Galva	$50,000	no account filed
May 2004	Lightning	Galva	$10,000	Lightning strike from storms started a fire at SW 5th Ave and SW 6th St.
July 2003	Hail	Galva	$10,000	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Galva	$10,000	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Galva	$10,000	no account filed
July 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	$10,000	no account filed
August 2009	Lightning	Galva	$5,000	Lightning struck a transformer in Galva, IL around 1214 pm August 7. A power outage was observed on the southeast side of town.
November 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	$3,000	Two machine shed doors were blown off and trees were blown down.
March 2006	Hail	Galva	$3,000	Quarter sized hail.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	$500	Many small limbs were downed with a few 4 inch diameter limbs down. A measured gust of 48 knots (55 mph) was recorded at the Civil Defense Office.
May 1998	Tornado (F0)	Galva	$50	Brief tornado downed powerlines and damaged rooftops in Galva.
May 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	A public report of a few very large tree branches down. The time of the event was estimated using radar.
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	Emergency Manager reported a tree top blown off. The time of the event was estimated using radar.
April 2025	Tornado (EF1)	Galva	-	The tornado touched down about a mile west of Victoria in Knox County Illinois (NWS Lincoln) traveling north northeast. It went through Galva where it snapped several trees, then it progressed northeast damaging more trees and an outbuilding along an approximately 7.2 miles path before dissipating about 3 miles west of Kewanee.
May 2024	Hail	Galva	-	Emergency management relayed a report of lots of pea to dime size hail, with a few quarters.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	The Emergency Manager reported trees and power lines down.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	A public report of widespread tree damage throughout Galva. There are 4 to 5 power poles down plus electrical service pulled from houses. US 34 is still blocked due to power lines too low for traffic. There are 3 known locations with tree limbs falling on houses and one has a broken window and roof damage.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	Grain wagons blown over by thunderstorm winds.
April 2023	Hail	Galva	-	The Emergency Manager reported nickel size hail 1.5 miles southwest of Galva.
April 2023	Hail	Galva	-	The time of the event was estimated using radar.
April 2023	Hail	Galva	-	The Emergency Manager reported quarter size hail 1.5 miles southwest of Galva.
November 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	Law Enforcement relayed a report of powerlines and poles down in Galva. The time of the event was estimated using radar.
April 2020	Hail	Galva	-	City of Galva volunteer emergency management reported pea to quarter size hail.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	Trees were reported blown down, along with one power line.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	A trained spotter reported that several trees were down. Some of the trees were 2 to 2.5 feet wide. A 4 foot wide mostly rotten tree fell with several large branches also down.
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	The Emergency Manager reported that a tree was snapped off at the base and down owr liens near this location.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	Power lines were blown down in Galva.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	A tree limb was down over power lines. The time was estimated from radar.
May 2018	Hail	Galva	-	A trained spotter reported hail up to the size of pennies.
February 2017	Hail	Galva	-	Emergency management reported quarter size hail.
February 2017	Hail	Galva	-	A spotter reports a mix of quarter to half dollar size hail.
February 2017	Hail	Galva	-	Spotters reported dime size hail.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	A NWS storm survey observed numerous trees were blown over and limbs broken off in Galva.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	Local law enforcement reported trees were down.
September 2014	Hail	Galva	-	The hail cover the ground and lasted for about 5 minutes.
April 2014	Hail	Galva	-	A trained spotter reported that hail was falling for the past 10 minutes.
April 2013	Hail	Galva	-	Dime to nickel sized hail fell in Galva, IL between 930 pm and 935 pm April 6.
May 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	The emergency manager reported several 2 to 4 inches in diameter branches down on the northwest wide of Galva.
September 2012	Hail	Galva	-	Nickel sized hail fell in Galva, IL at 423 pm CDT September 17.
April 2011	Hail	Galva	-	Pea to dime sized hail fell in Galva, IL around 6 pm CDT April 15.
May 2011	Hail	Galva	-	Quarter sized hail fell at the cemetery just south of Galva, IL at 705 pm CDT May 22.
May 2011	Hail	Galva	-	Quarter sized hail fell at 3 miles east of Galva, IL at 708 pm CDT May 22.
May 2011	Hail	Galva	-	Golf ball sized hail fell in Galva, IL at 548 pm CDT May 22.
August 2011	Heavy Rain	Galva	-	Storm total rainfall since midnight.
April 2010	Flash Flood	Galva	-	Heavy rains of 1 to 4 inches resulted in some flash flooding of some streets in Galva, IL during the evening of April 24. The flood waters were 6 inches deep.
November 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	A trained spotter reported several trees and power poles damaged, as well as some structural damage mainly south and southeast of Galva. Some semi-trucks were also overturned. Winds were estimated at 90 mph.
November 2010	Hail	Galva	-	The emergency manager reported golf ball size hail in Galva.
November 2010	Hail	Galva	-	A trained spotter estimated hail to penny size in Galva.
June 2010	Hail	Galva	-	Golf ball sized hail fell in Galva, IL at 721 pm June 4.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Galva	-	Wind gusts were estimated to be 60 mph in Galva, IL at 721 pm June 4.
June 2010	Hail	Galva	-	Quarter-sized hail fell on the north side of Galva, IL at 855 pm June 18.

Every storm recorded in Henry 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
Bishop Hill	4.7 miles	14
Nekoma	7.8 miles	14
Saxon (historical)	8.0 miles	11
Kewanee	8.2 miles	11
German Corner	8.7 miles	11
Ulah	8.9 miles	11
Brandenburg Corners	11.3 miles	10
Cambridge	12.3 miles	11

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 Galva	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q578470	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 428372. 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.