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.
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
John Patton Log Cabinlisted 1986
David Hyatt Van Dolah Houselisted 2015
Population over time
2 figuresLexington 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2,060 | |
| 2020 | 2,090 | +30 (+1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 14 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.
- 1926 USGS Normal quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1930 USGS Normal quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Lexington quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Fairbury quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1990 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
In the county-history sources
13,434 words on this townshipThe 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 2009Regional 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/undetermined | 10 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | KELLER |
| 4 May 2010 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | FREED |
| 22 May 2012 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | KEMP |
| 30 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | STUART |
| 22 April 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | LEX BROWN2 |
| 19 April 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | BROWN |
| 19 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | LEX BROWN1 |
| 18 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | MONEY |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional 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.
Storms near this place
26 since 1998Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | $60,000 | An 80-foot tall 30-inch diameter tree was blown onto a house. In addition, numerous power lines were blown down in Lexington. |
| January 2020 | Lightning | Lexington | $30,000 | Lightning 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 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | $20,000 | Numerous powerlines were blown down. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | $8,000 | A large tree was blown down onto a house in Lexington. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | A tree was blown down onto a house. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Several power lines were blown down. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Numerous large trees limbs were blown down, some onto houses. Power lines were also damaged. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Several small tree limbs were blown down. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Numerous tree limbs were blown down across Lexington. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Several power poles were blown down. |
| March 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Several large tree branchs were blown down. |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | An empty work trailer was blown over. It sustained moderate damage. |
| May 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | A large section of a tree was blown over onto a house, causing minor guttering damage. |
| June 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Lexington | - | A tornado briefly touched down in a field one mile west of Lexington. No injuries or damage were reported. |
| March 2007 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| March 2006 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| March 2005 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Lexington | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timber Ridge | 1.0 miles | 14 | |
| Pleasant Hill | 2.7 miles | 11 | |
| Clarksville | 3.5 miles | 14 | |
| Meadows | 7.2 miles | 14 | |
| Cooksville | 7.7 miles | 11 | |
| Chenoa | 7.7 miles | 11 | |
| Fletcher | 7.9 miles | 14 | |
| Towanda | 8.1 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 Lexington | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q575528 | 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 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.







