BlockRoberts, Illinois
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1948 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Lyman Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60962. The Survey maps it on the Melvin East quadrangle. 345 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 784 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresRoberts fell from 362 to 345 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 | 362 | |
| 2020 | 345 | -17 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 13 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.
- 1948 USGS Buckley quadrangle1:62500
- 1949 USGS Buckley quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Fairbury quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Melvin East quadrangle1:24000
- 1990 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
In the county-history sources
3,239 words on this townshipHistorical Atlas of Ford County Illinois, published 1884 names this settlement in its chapter on Lyman Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
As has already been stated, all Sections (except Fractional Sections which are explained else¬ where) are supposed to contain 640 acres, and even though mistakes have been made in surveying, as i9 frequently the case, making sections larger or smaller than 640 acres, the Government recog¬ nizes no variatiou, but- sells or grants each regular section as containing 640 acres "more or less.
Passage source: Historical Atlas of Ford County Illinois, published 1884.
Tho Government Surveyors are not required to subdivide sections by running lines within them, but they usually establish Quarter Posts on Section Lines on each side of a section at the noints marked A. B. C. and D. on Diagram 5. After establishing Township corners, Section
Passage source: Historical Atlas of Ford County Illinois, published 1884.
CONGRESSIONAL Townships vary considerably as to size and boundaries. Mistakes made in surveying and the fact that Meridians converge as they run North cause every Township to vary more or less from the 23,040 acres which a perfect Township would contain. See Diagram 4. In arranging a Township into Sections all the surplus or deficiency of land is given to, or taken from, the North and West tiers of Sections. In other words, all Sections in the Township are made full - 640 acres - except those on the North and West, which are given all the land that is left after forming the other 25 Sections.
Passage source: Historical Atlas of Ford County Illinois, published 1884.
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 Lyman Township - it names this place 8 more 8 times.
Fires near this place
1 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Roberts in 2009, burning about 1 acre 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 | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 March 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | SHORT |
Storms near this place
7 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Roberts in 7 storm reports between 1994 and 2021: 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2011 | Hail | Roberts | $250,000 | Hail up to the size of golf balls pounded the city of Roberts damaging numerous cars and roofs. |
| June 2021 | Funnel Cloud | Roberts | - | A photo of a funnel cloud northeast of Roberts was shared on social media. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Roberts | - | Trees were blown down south of Roberts. |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Roberts | - | Multiple power lines were blown down along Route 54 between Gibson City and Thawville. |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Roberts | - | Tree limbs were blown down. |
| June 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Roberts | - | There were several reports of a tornado west of Roberts and near Melvin. No damage was reported. |
| April 1994 | Hail | Roberts | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melvin | 4.6 miles | 13 | |
| Piper City | 9.9 miles | 13 | |
| Perdueville | 10.2 miles | 16 | |
| Guthrie | 10.4 miles | 14 | |
| Sibley | 10.6 miles | 14 | |
| Elliott | 11.2 miles | 14 | |
| Paxton | 11.5 miles | 16 | |
| Garber | 12.5 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 Roberts | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q629929 | 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 416754. 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.
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.