Macon, Illinois

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1949 and the latest in 1998. It stands in South Macon Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62544. The Survey maps it on the Macon East quadrangle. 1,177 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 722 feet above sea level.

Macon within Macon County

Population over time

2 figures

Macon grew from 1,138 to 1,177 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	1,138
2020	1,177	+39 (+3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 11 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.

1949 USGS Dalton City quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1958 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1961 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1983 USGS Macon East quadrangle1:24000
1985 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
1998 USGS Macon East quadrangle1:24000

In the county-history sources

3,550 words on this township

History of Macon County, Illinois : with Illustrations Descriptive of Its Scenery, and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on South Macon Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

In 1835, William Morris, with his family, came from Indiana and built a cabin on section 12 of T. 14 N., R. 2 E., just north of what is now known as the Long Grove. This is a long strip of timber, probably three-fourths of a mile in width, running along the southern edge of the township. Mr. Morris was the first settler in the township, but he did not live long after he came. He died in 1836, one year after his arrival in the county. This was the first death. He was buried near the east end of Long Grove, in what afterward became the neighborhood burying-ground, and was the first place of the kind established in South Macon township.

Passage source: History of Macon County, Illinois : with Illustrations Descriptive of Its Scenery, and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1880.

The settlement in the south-west part of the township is credited with having had the first school-house. This was built on section 12, of T. 14 N. R. 2 E., in the year 1854. The first teacher was Bradford Stuart who came from Kentucky to Illinois at an early date. He was a native of Indiana. B. K. Durfee, now of Decatur, taught school at quite an early day in a school-house on section 8, T. 14 N., R. 2 E., about two miles south of Macon.

Passage source: History of Macon County, Illinois : with Illustrations Descriptive of Its Scenery, and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1880.

This thriving little place is situated on section thirty-two ofTp. 15 N. R. 2 E., and on the line of the Illinois Central railroad, a'oout ten miles from the city of Decatur. It is in the heart of a thickly populated country, and commands the trade for many miles around. It was laid out by the Illinois Railroad Company, immediately after the completion of the road in 1854. The first building erected, was by the railroad company. It was used as a freight and passenger depot. C. H. Ruby was the first person to settle in the town. He lived in this depot from 1854 to 1860. In 1857 the company appointed J. S. Ruby, their agent at Macon, who was the first regular agent of the company at this place. Here for a number of~years, the company had their land office for the sale of lands in this portion of the county. A. G. Harris built the first residence in this town. This was in the year 1858.

Passage source: History of Macon County, Illinois : with Illustrations Descriptive of Its Scenery, and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1880.

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 South Macon Township - it names this place 7 more 7 times.

Storms near this place

15 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Macon in 15 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 7 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 4 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
November 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Macon	1 hurt	As a line of thunderstorms moved through the area a 30 foot travel trailer was tipped over in Macon, injuring one person. The man sustained a dislocated hip. Then 4 miles east of Macon, a large tree was blown onto a house causing moderate damage. Also, two machine sheds sustained damage in the area. In Forsyth, a garage and an above ground swimming pool sustained damage from a fallen tree. No damage estimate was available.
May 2020	Tornado (EF0)	Macon	$10,000	A tornado touched down in an open field 1.2 miles north-northeast of Macon at 4:06 PM CDT. It tracked northeastward and dissipated about 1.1 miles east-northeast of Elwin at 4:14 PM CDT. Minor damage to trees was reported.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Macon	-	Multiple trees were blown down.
August 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Macon	-	Power lines were blown down in Macon.
April 2006	Tornado (F2)	Macon	-	The tornado completely destroyed a large barn, causing debris to be blown more than a mile to the northeast. It also damaged trees and did minor damage to a roof.
April 2005	Tornado (F0)	Macon	-	A tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage or injuries were reported.
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Macon	-	Several tree limbs and power lines blown down.
April 1998	Tornado (F0)	Macon	-	A tornado briefly touched down in a field 4 miles east of Macon. No injuries or damage were reported.
March 2026	Hail	Macon	-	no account filed
May 2021	Hail	Macon	-	no account filed
May 2019	Hail	Macon	-	no account filed
June 2013	Hail	Macon	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Macon	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Macon	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Macon	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Macon 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
Walker	2.6 miles	11
Boody	4.6 miles	11
Elwin	4.6 miles	14
Bulldog Crossing	5.8 miles	11
Blackland	6.6 miles	11
Turpin	6.7 miles	14
Blue Mound	6.7 miles	11
Mount Zion	7.7 miles	14

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 Macon	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q575511	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 412810. 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.