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Mechanicsburg, Illinois

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Mechanicsburg Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62545. The Survey maps it on the Mechanicsburg quadrangle. 662 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 587 feet above sea level.

Mechanicsburg within Sangamon County

Population over time

2 figures

Mechanicsburg grew from 590 to 662 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
2010590
2020662+72 (+12%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 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

1,431 words on this township

History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881 names this settlement in its chapter on Mechanicsburg Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The township of Mechanicsburg comprises township sixteen, north, range three west, and is bounded on the east by Wheatfield, west by Clear Lake, north by Buffalo Plart, south by Cooper township. The surface of the country is rolling, and was originally about three-fourths prairie. The principal water course is Clear creek, which has several small tributaries. The Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad passes through the township, entering from Springfield on section seven, and passing in an air-line east enters Wheatfield from section twelve. There are in the township three villages - Mechanicsburg, Buffalo and Dawson.

Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.

The first settlement in the toAvnship was in 1824. Among the early settlers were James Newell, Jesse Wilson, William Burch, A. Churchill, Samuel Garvey, William Jack, S. Cox, Jacob Constant, Charles Morgan, Daniel Morgan, David Hall, Jesse Pickrell, Morris Bird, Thomas Fortune, William Pickrell, Benjamin L. Hall, George Churchill, Samuel Cox, John Constant, Josiah Green, J. H. Fullinwider.

Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.

Jacob Constant, brother to John, was the grandfather of Rezin H. He was also the brother of Isaac and Thomas, and was born about 1765, in Virginia. Eleanor Clinkenbeard was born about 1769, in Virginia also. They were there married, and soon after moved on pack horses - that being the only way goods could be transported at that time through that mountainous country - to Fleming county, Kentucky. They had fourteen children in that county, and in 1814 moved to Clermont county, Ohio, where they had two children. The family moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving October 26, 1826, in what is now Mechanicsburg township. He died in 1828. Ill -

Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.

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 Mechanicsburg Township - it names this place 18 more 18 times.

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 Mechanicsburg: 1 plant, 1 past producer. 1 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
Burkhart Dredge & MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionPlant
F.F. Mengel Sand & Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Sangamon County

Storms near this place

14 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mechanicsburg in 14 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 8 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 tornado. 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
June 2015Thunderstorm WindMechanicsburg$25,000A tree was blown onto a mobile home in Mechanicsburg.
February 2011Thunderstorm WindMechanicsburg$5,000A power pole was broken, resulting in a 6-hour power outage in Mechanicsburg.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindMechanicsburg-Four power poles were blown down east of Mechanicsburg.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindMechanicsburg-A tree was blown onto power lines.
August 2023Thunderstorm WindMechanicsburg-A few trees were blown down.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindMechanicsburg-A large tree branch was blown down.
May 2021Tornado (EFU)Mechanicsburg-A weak tornado touched down in a field about 2 miles northwest of Mechanicsburg at 6:14 PM CDT. The tornado tracked southeastward and quickly dissipated by 6:15 PM CDT. No damage occurred.
April 2020Thunderstorm WindMechanicsburg-A power pole was blown down on John Wayne Road.
June 2002Thunderstorm WindMechanicsburg-A large tree was blown over onto a house causing moderate damage. No injuries were reported.
April 2025HailMechanicsburg-no account filed
May 2012HailMechanicsburg-no account filed
May 2011HailMechanicsburg-no account filed
May 2008HailMechanicsburg-no account filed
April 1996HailMechanicsburg-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Sangamon 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
Buffalo3.0 miles10
Lanesville3.9 miles10
Dawson4.6 miles10
Buckhart4.8 miles12
Saunders5.6 miles10
Haynes6.0 miles10
Buffalo Hart7.7 miles11
Berry7.7 miles12

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 MechanicsburgAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2672454The 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 413358. 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.

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.