Latham, Illinois
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Laenna Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62543. The Survey maps it on the Latham quadrangle. 333 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 617 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresLatham fell from 380 to 333 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 | 380 | |
| 2020 | 333 | -47 (-12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 11 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.
- 1954 USGS Niantic quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1982 USGS Latham quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Springfield quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Laenna township. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
Laenna T0Wn8Hip
Romer, was killed in 1866, by falling from the sixth story of a building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1855 our subject came to the United States, and when he had reached New York City had not money sufficient to pay the drayage of his trunk, and the dray¬ man took it, and he was left in a strange country with no money nor friends.
In the county-history sources
7,978 words on this townshipHistory of Logan County, Illinois : Its Past and Present .., published 1878 names this settlement in its chapter on Laenna Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
AYRES ALiFRED, farmer. Sec. 5; P.O. Mt. Pulaski; was born in Hamilton Co. Ohio, Jan. 25, 1829, and raised -in Miami Co. Ohio; came to Illinois in 1850; was married to Nellie Hoffman, March 25, 1864; had three children : Laura, Mary Alice, and Lina Jane; owns 40 acres, yalued at $1,600; rep; liberal
Passage source: History of Logan County, Illinois : Its Past and Present .., published 1878.
John W. Clark, was a native of New Jersey, and his mother, Ann (Isgrig), was a native of Maryland. In i8i6, Mr. Claik came, with his parents, to Miami County, Ohio, where he learned the house-joiner's trade. Two days before he was of age, on Sepember 28, 1830, he started on foot for Illinois, walking all the way, save when he was crossing the Wabash River; he was twelve days on the way; came to Richard W. Clark's, in Sangamon County. On July 7, 1831. he was married here to Hannah Stout, who was born in Pennsylvania, December 27, 1810. Went to Springfield to live; from there to Athens, and from there, in 1841, to his present home on Salt Creek; he has six children: Thomas S. bom February 13, 1832; Margaret Ann, November 16, 1835; Isaac T. March 16, 1841; Robert D. September 30, 1844; Charles R. April 23, 1846; and Angeline M. September 17, 1S50. Mr. Clark owns 280 acres, valued at $14,000
Passage source: History of Logan County, Illinois : Its Past and Present .., published 1878.
M.D. physician and surgeon, Latham; was bom in Someryille, Butler Co. Ohio, Aug. 6, 1843; he graduated at the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, July 23^ 1862; also graduated at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, of Cincinnati, Feb. 22, 1866; married Sarah C. Neal, of Cicero, Ind. April 29, 1869. Mr. M. has been a resident of Illinois over four years
Passage source: History of Logan County, Illinois : Its Past and Present .., published 1878.
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 Laenna Township - it names this place 19 more 19 times.
Storms near this place
29 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Latham in 29 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 12 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 5 tornado, 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 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Latham | $75,000 | A 2.5-foot diameter tree was blown down in Latham. Forty 1 to 1.5-foot diameter trees were split and numerous tree branches were blown down around town. Several garages were damaged by falling branches. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Latham | $20,000 | Power lines and power poles were blown down in Latham. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Latham | $12,000 | Power lines were blown down in Latham. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Latham | $10,000 | Power lines were blown down in Latham. |
| May 2025 | Tornado (EFU) | Latham | - | A trained spotter observed a rain-wrapped tornado just south of Latham. The tornado touched down in a field at 3:27 PM CDT, tracked northeastward across 2300th Avenue, then quickly dissipated by 3:28 PM CDT. |
| April 2025 | Tornado (EF0) | Latham | - | A tornado touched down along 2200th Avenue just north of its intersection with IL-121 about 1 mile northwest of Latham where it snapped a power pole at 3:40 PM CDT. It then tracked northeastward and crossed into Macon County north of the intersection of 2400th Avenue and 500th Street at 3:42 PM CDT. |
| April 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Latham | - | The Latham Fire Department estimated a 60 to 70 mph wind gust. |
| April 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Latham | - | The Latham Fire Department estimated a wind gust up to 90 mph. |
| April 2024 | Tornado (EF1) | Latham | - | The tornado touched down just east of the intersection of 2300th Avenue and 200th Street, about 1.5 miles south-southeast of Latham in Logan County, where it produced damage to the roof of an outbuilding. The tornado continued east, crossing into Macon County at the intersection of 2400th Avenue and Heman Street, about two miles southeast of Latham. The tornado eventually dissipated 0.9 miles west of Heman. Softwood and hardwood trees were uprooted along 2400th Avenue, which is the county line between Logan and Macon counties. |
| April 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Latham | - | Softwood tree limbs were broken off. |
| January 2023 | Tornado (EFU) | Latham | - | A trained spotter reported a brief tornado touchdown in an open field about 3 miles southwest of Lathan at 4:05 PM CST. No damage occurred. |
| December 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Latham | - | Several power poles were snapped along 600th Street just west of 2400th Avenue. |
| March 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Latham | - | Damage to a home. |
| March 2006 | Tornado (F1) | Latham | - | A tornado developed 6 miles southwest of Latham. The tornado continued into Macon county. |
| June 2003 | Flash Flood | Latham | - | Very heavy rain fell in a short amount of time. Several rural roads around Latham were flooded due to the heavy rains. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Latham | - | Several large trees were blown down in Latham and Chestnut. In Latham, a shed had its doors blown off and a tree fell onto a house causing minor damage. Numerous power lines were blown down as well. |
| August 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Latham | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down a large tree onto some power lines in Latham. No injuries were reported and no damage estimate was available. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Latham | - | no account filed |
| March 2024 | Hail | Latham | - | no account filed |
| March 2024 | Hail | Latham | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Latham | - | no account filed |
| April 2013 | Hail | Latham | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Latham | - | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Hail | Latham | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Latham | - | no account filed |
| March 2006 | Hail | Latham | - | no account filed |
| March 2005 | Hail | Latham | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Latham | - | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | Latham | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Narita | 3.2 miles | 11 | |
| Chestnut | 6.0 miles | 12 | |
| Bakerville | 6.8 miles | 12 | |
| Mount Pulaski | 7.0 miles | 14 | |
| Lake Fork | 10.0 miles | 10 | |
| Chestervale | 12.0 miles | 14 | |
| Beason | 12.2 miles | 12 | |
| Cornland | 12.9 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 Latham | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2547845 | 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 411839. 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.




