BlockBefore

Palestine, Illinois

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1943 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Lamotte Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62451. The Survey maps it on the Merom quadrangle. 1,233 people lived here at the 2020 count.

Palestine within Crawford County

On record in Palestine

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 3 records

Population over time

2 figures

Palestine fell from 1,369 to 1,233 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
20101,369
20201,233-136 (-10%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 20 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

364 words on this township

ILLINOIS HISTORICAL CRAWFORD COUNTY, published 1909 names this settlement in its chapter on Lamotte Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Lamotte Township is bounded on the north by Hutsonville Township, northeast and east by the Wabash River, south by Montgomery Township and west by Robinson Township. Lamotte Creek, flowing southeasterly into the Wabash near Palestine Landing, furnishes the main drainage. Back from the river the surface of the township is flat or slightly rolling. Within its borders were built the dwellings of the county's first settlers, and were instituted the first court and Government Land Office in this part of Illinois. At a period when the redskins outnumbered the whites the earliest forts and Stockades of the county were built here, around which cluster the memories of tragic events. Originally the entire area was covered with a growth of walnut, oak, hickory, buckeye, cottonwood, pecan, hackberry, sycamore and other forest trees. From east to west it was traversed in its subsequent development by the St. Louis, Indianapolis & Eastern Railroad, originally built as a narrow-guage, but later enlarged and now a part of the Illinois Central.

Passage source: ILLINOIS HISTORICAL CRAWFORD COUNTY, published 1909.

The first white families known to have lived in Lamotte Township located there shortly before the War of 1812, and on the outbreak of that confliet gathered together on the present site of Palestine, building a blockhouse for defence against the Indians. Of these, the largest, and, perhaps, most prominent, was the family of Wiliam Lamotte. who came from the South about the year 1808, with his sons, John, Job, Benjamin, Joseph, William and others. Some of the Eatons were killed by the savages and the remainder moved to different points after the war. Other pioneers whose names have been handed down were: Thomas Kennédy, Jesse Higgins, John Garrard, the Woods (John, Joseph and Welton), David Reavill, the McCalls, the Millses, David MeGahey, the Brimberrys, J. Purcell, Mrs. Gaddis Smith and James Shaw, J. Veach, George Bathe, John 8. Woodworth, Thomas Gill, Edward N. Cullom. Joseph Kitchell, William Wilson, James H. Wilson, Wickliffe Kitehell, Col. John Houston and his brother Alexander M., John C. and Harmon Alexander. Many others equally conspicuous in the early history of the county, settled in Lamotte Township between 1818 and 1830, but limited space forbids the mention of any but the first comers.

Passage source: ILLINOIS HISTORICAL CRAWFORD COUNTY, published 1909.

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 Lamotte Township.

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Palestine: 2 occurrences, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Iron, 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
Lawrence Gravel #2Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Unnamed ProspectIronOccurrence
Unnamed ProspectIronOccurrence

Every working recorded in Crawford County

Storms near this place

15 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Palestine in 15 storm reports between 2002 and 2026: 8 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind. 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 2010Thunderstorm WindPalestine$85,000Several power lines and street signs were knocked down. 8 to 10 mature oak trees approximately 2 to 3 feet in diameter were toppled. Numerous tree branches were blown down all around town.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindPalestine$70,000A large metal pole building was destroyed. Also, a barn and several other outbuildings sustained damage. Corn was flattened in some area fields.
May 2016Thunderstorm WindPalestine$25,000Several trees and power lines were blown down in Palestine.
May 2015Thunderstorm WindPalestine$15,000Numerous trees were blown down, causing a power outage in Palestine.
August 2008Thunderstorm WindPalestine$8,000Several three-inch diameter limbs were blown down.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindPalestine$4,000A large tree limb was blown down onto power lines in Palestine.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindPalestine-Three large trees were blown over near Leaverton Park.
September 2006HailPalestine-The hail covered the ground.
March 2026HailPalestine-no account filed
June 2018HailPalestine-no account filed
April 2012HailPalestine-no account filed
July 2010HailPalestine-no account filed
May 2009HailPalestine-no account filed
April 2006HailPalestine-no account filed
May 2002HailPalestine-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Crawford 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
Gordon3.8 miles14
Richwoods4.4 miles15
Morea5.4 miles13
Duncanville5.5 miles13
Trimble5.6 miles14
Robinson6.7 miles14
Hutsonville7.7 miles14
Flat Rock7.7 miles13

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 PalestineAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2666867The 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 415303. 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.