Minier, Illinois

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1951 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Little Mackinaw Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61759. The Survey maps it on the Minier quadrangle. 1,154 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 636 feet above sea level.

Minier within Tazewell County

Population over time

2 figures

Minier fell from 1,252 to 1,154 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	1,252
2020	1,154	-98 (-8%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 13 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.

1951 USGS Minier quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
1958 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1961 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
1963 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
1980 USGS Minier quadrangle1:24000
1985 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:100000
1989 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:100000
1990 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000

In the county-history sources

5,139 words on this township

History of Tazewell County, Illinois ; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois ... Digest of State Laws, published 1879 names this settlement in its chapter on Little Mackinaw Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

In point of agriculture, of the class and kind of improvements, and of the wealth and high standing of her people. Little Mackinaw is second to no township in Tazewell county. It is mostly prairie land, undulating, and well drained by the Little Mackinaw, Whitten branch and Sugar creeks. The Kansas City branch of the C, A. & St. L. Railroad passes through it on a direct east and west line. The village of Minier is located on sec. 22, on the line of this road, and also on the Illinois Midland Railroad. This town was laid out in 1867, Oct. 18th, by Geo. W. Minier, Chas. E. Boyer, and others. It is now a thriving place, and considerable business is done here. We speak more fully of the business men further on in this article. The township is inhabited by a cultured, refined and a religious people. Good churches, neat school-houses, and the fine commodious residences on every hand, are unmistakable evidences of the verity of this statement.

Passage source: History of Tazewell County, Illinois ; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois ... Digest of State Laws, published 1879.

Little Machinaw Christian Church was organized in 1833, in a log building, and was among the first congregation of this people organized north of the Sangamon river. The members at the time were Thomas F. Railsback, Louisa, his wife, A. B. Davis, Catherine Allensworth, Benjamin Herndon, and Nancy, his wife, Elijah Howell, and Maria, his wife. Elder James Lindsey was the first minister. The church edifice is about 36 by 40 feet, and cost $2,100. The first discourse in this structure was preached by Elder Minier, in September, 1863, the year tlie building was erected. It is located near the residence of G. W. Minier. Connected with the building and grounds is a beautiful cemetery, perhaps the finest necropolis in the county. The present pastor of the church is Elder R. D. Cotton. The Sunday-school is superintended by Richard Chapman, and has an average attendance of 75. The Little Mackinaw Church is the parent of four other Christian Churches, viz : The Christian Church of Minier, and those at Mackinaw, Concord and Lilly.

Minier Christian Church. - This church edifice was erected in 1874. It is a frame building, and is located on South Railroad street. The original members of the congregation were W. P. Williams, J. E. Railsback, J. F. Quigg, J. M. Edmiston, and others. The first pastor was Samuel Lowe, who dedicated the church and preached the first sermon. The officers are J. B. Chaplin, R. J. Mitchell, J. E. Railsback, J. M. Edmiston, John F. Quigg, and Asa Hicks. The present membership number about 130. The value of building, $3,000; average salary of pastors, |1,000. The Sunday-school has an average attendance of 75.

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 Little Mackinaw Township - it names this place 24 more 24 times.

Storms near this place

16 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Minier in 16 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 7 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 1 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
January 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Minier	-	Four power poles were snapped along Stringtown Road just southwest of Minier.
January 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Minier	-	A tree was blown onto power lines near the intersection of North Minier Avenue and East Olive Street.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Minier	-	A 10-inch diameter tree was blown down.
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Minier	-	A power pole was blown down in Minier.
August 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Minier	-	Several small tree branches were blown down across Minier.
April 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Minier	-	Power lines blown down.
January 2005	Flash Flood	Minier	-	Stringtown road was closed west of Minier due to water flowing over road.
June 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Minier	-	Thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 mph blew a trained spotter's truck three feet off the road.
August 1993	Hail	Minier	-	A woman photographed a narrow tornado on the ground in an open field. As it approached it lifted. No damage was reported.
August 1993	Hail	Minier	-	A woman photographed a narrow tornado on the ground in an open field. As it approached it lifted. No damage was reported.
August 1993	Tornado (F1)	Minier	-	A woman photographed a narrow tornado on the ground in an open field. As it approached it lifted. No damage was reported.
May 2019	Hail	Minier	-	no account filed
April 2011	Hail	Minier	-	no account filed
February 1996	Hail	Minier	-	no account filed
June 1995	Hail	Minier	-	no account filed
April 1994	Hail	Minier	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Tazewell 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
Mindale	3.1 miles	13
Fravert	3.2 miles	13
Tazewell	3.7 miles	13
Sutter	3.9 miles	13
Walnut	4.6 miles	13
Hopedale	5.4 miles	14
Richmond	5.8 miles	13
Armington	6.5 miles	13

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 Minier	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2391104	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 413652. 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.