BlockBefore

Lexington, Illinois

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1926 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Lexington Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61753. The Survey maps it on the Lexington quadrangle. 2,090 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 761 feet above sea level.

Lexington within McLean County

On record in Lexington

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

Population over time

2 figures

Lexington grew from 2,060 to 2,090 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.

YearPeople Change
20102,060
20202,090+30 (+1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 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.

In the county-history sources

13,434 words on this township

The Good Old Times in Mclean County, Illinois, published 1874 names this settlement in its chapter on Lexington Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

During the winter of the deep snow Mr. Spawr pounded corn of course. For nearly sixty days the sun did not shine warm enough to make a wet spot in front of his south door. During that winter a man named Rook came down from Rook's Creek (Little Vermilion) with a handsled, walking with snow-shoes, and obtained corn for his family of Conrad Flesher, who lived where Lexington now stands.

Passage source: The Good Old Times in Mclean County, Illinois, published 1874.

The town of Lexington was laid off in 1835; and in 1836 Mr. Spawr moved there from Money Creek timber. It was during December of that year that the great sudden change of the weather occurred. Mr. Spawr then saw the water blown into waves and frozen in that way. He speaks of another sudden change almost as severe. In November, 1842, he started for Chicago with a party to drive stock. The weather had been mild, but it snowed and melted and by the seventh of November it froze up. On the return of the party from Chicago they crossed the Kankakee on the ice at the rapids, where the water runs as swiftly as a mill race. A thaw came in January, but the cold weather again returned and winter continued until March.

Passage source: The Good Old Times in Mclean County, Illinois, published 1874.

George Spawr, son of Valentine Spawr, was born December ` 26, 1806, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1827, he came to Illinois with the Spawr family, except two sisters, who never came, and also except Jacob and his sister, Mrs. Catherine Guthrie, who came the year before. When they came to the Indiana wilderness of heavy timber, they met with a lot of teams, and all joined and went through the wilderness together, in order to be protected against a band of robbers, by whom itwas infested. The travellers camped one night in the wilderness and were visited by a suspicious character, but they detailed seven men to watch the camp and were not molested. In the morning their unwelcome visitor left.

Passage source: The Good Old Times in Mclean County, Illinois, published 1874.

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 Lexington Township - it names this place 13 more 13 times.

Fires near this place

14 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Lexington between 2009 and 2014, burning about 101 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined10
Debris and open burning4

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
1 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesKELLER
4 May 2010Debris and open burning20 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesFREED
22 May 2012Debris and open burning2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesKEMP
30 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesSTUART
22 April 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesLEX BROWN2
19 April 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBROWN
19 April 2014Debris and open burning15 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesLEX BROWN1
18 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesMONEY

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in McLean County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Lexington: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Freed PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Mohr PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in McLean County

Storms near this place

26 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lexington in 26 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 13 thunderstorm wind, 11 hail, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2020Thunderstorm WindLexington$60,000An 80-foot tall 30-inch diameter tree was blown onto a house. In addition, numerous power lines were blown down in Lexington.
January 2020LightningLexington$30,000Lightning struck a tree and gas line in Lexington in McLean County at 2:40 AM CST. The tree caught fire, with the fire then spreading to a nearby home. The house suffered considerable damage to its roof and upper floor.
October 2010Thunderstorm WindLexington$20,000Numerous powerlines were blown down.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindLexington$8,000A large tree was blown down onto a house in Lexington.
June 2024Thunderstorm WindLexington-A tree was blown down onto a house.
June 2024Thunderstorm WindLexington-Several power lines were blown down.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindLexington-Numerous large trees limbs were blown down, some onto houses. Power lines were also damaged.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindLexington-Several small tree limbs were blown down.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindLexington-Numerous tree limbs were blown down across Lexington.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindLexington-Several power poles were blown down.
March 2007Thunderstorm WindLexington-Several large tree branchs were blown down.
August 2004Thunderstorm WindLexington-An empty work trailer was blown over. It sustained moderate damage.
May 2001Thunderstorm WindLexington-A large section of a tree was blown over onto a house, causing minor guttering damage.
June 1999Tornado (F0)Lexington-A tornado briefly touched down in a field one mile west of Lexington. No injuries or damage were reported.
March 2007HailLexington-no account filed
April 2006HailLexington-no account filed
March 2006HailLexington-no account filed
April 2006HailLexington-no account filed
July 2006HailLexington-no account filed
March 2005HailLexington-no account filed
July 2003HailLexington-no account filed
July 2003HailLexington-no account filed
April 2001HailLexington-no account filed
May 2000Thunderstorm WindLexington-no account filed
May 2000HailLexington-no account filed
May 1998HailLexington-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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Timber Ridge1.0 miles14
Pleasant Hill2.7 miles11
Clarksville3.5 miles14
Meadows7.2 miles14
Cooksville7.7 miles11
Chenoa7.7 miles11
Fletcher7.9 miles14
Towanda8.1 miles15

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 LexingtonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q575528The 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 411977. 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.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, 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.