BlockBefore

Romeo, Illinois

24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Lockport Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60441. It stands on Long Run. The Survey maps it on the Romeoville quadrangle.

Romeo within Will County

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 24 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

2,883 words on this township

The History of Will County, Illinois, Containing a History of the County ... a Directory of Its Real Estate Owners; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics ... History of Illinois ... History of the Northwest .., published 1878 names this settlement in its chapter on Lockport Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Lockport is a grain market of considerable importance. Trade in grain began here on the opening of the Canal in 1848. Hiram Norton, the father of the present grain dealer, J. L. Norton, John Milks, Jenkins, and Geo. Gaylord, were the first who entered the business. Gaylord & Co., with the exception of from 1852 to 1863, have been in the trade ever since, and handle annually from 300,000 to 400,000 bushels of corn and oats exclusively, all of which is shipped by the canal. Gaylord was the first man to buy grain at legal weights, and had a hard fight with the other dealers to maintain it, but eventually carried the day. Since buying the Martin property, Gaylord & Co. have storage and cribbing capacity for more than 200,000 bushels of grain. Their elevators have improved steam-power, and are provided with grain-dumps and all modern conveniences for handling grain. Norton & Co. are the only other firm in the grain business here at present. They handle, including the wheat used in the mill, perhaps between 800,000 and 900,000 bushels annually. With an extensive and well-appointed warehouse and steam elevator of large capacity, they are well prepared for the grain business in any form or shape. George B. Martin, at one time, was a heavy grain dealer at this place - too heavy for the financial benefit of many of his patrons. He commenced business here in 1849 - 50, without capital it is supposed, and by dint of energy and good business ability worked up an immense trade, gaining the fullest confidence of the entire community. There are, perhaps, few cases on record of a more complete betrayal of confidence. Many hard-working people had deposited their savings with him, and it is even said that washerwomen had money deposited in his hands, when, without warning he failed most disastrously, to the amount of $200,000, a failure aggravated in its nature and sad in its results ; scarcely equaled in the distress it wrought among the working people, by Spencer's State Savings failure or Myer's "busted" Beehive, of Chicago. He is said to have been of most excellent family, was not a fast man nor high liver, but is supposed to have managed badly, paid too much interest, and traded too high on borrowed capital. One bad move he made was in establishing a grain point at Romeo, a few miles north of Lockport, which took considerable trade from him, which, otherwise, he would have secured at this place. William Shields and Anderson are now buying grain at Romeo for Norton & Co., and do quite a large business for a country station.

Passage source: The History of Will County, Illinois, Containing a History of the County ... a Directory of Its Real Estate Owners; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics ... History of Illinois ... History of the Northwest .., published 1878.

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 Lockport Township.

Fires near this place

7 since 2020

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Romeo in 2020, burning about 4 acres 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/undetermined3
Debris and open burning2
Smoking1
Equipment and vehicle use1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
1 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources20-0002215
3 August 2020Smokingunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources20-0001661
5 May 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources20-0000919
5 May 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources20-0000918
13 April 2020Debris and open burning1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources20-0000723
9 November 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources20-0002593
1 October 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources20-0002295

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Will County

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Romeo: 3 past producers, 3 plants, 2 producers, 1 occurrence. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sulfur, 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
Lemont PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
(Facility) Mobil Oil Joilet RefinerySulfurPlant
(Facility) Union 76 Chicago RefinerySulfurPlant
Texaco Lockport PlantSulfurProducer
Barge Slip QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Lemont Quarry & Mill Yard 360Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Lemont Quarry Consumers CompanyStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Limestone ProspectStone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
Romeo Quarry & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant

Every working recorded in Will 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
Romeoville1.7 miles24
Hampton Park1.7 miles24
Nottingham Ridge1.9 miles24
Honeytree2.0 miles24
Basham Carriage Manor Estates2.0 miles24
Haley Meadows2.1 miles24
Boula2.2 miles23
Lockport Heights2.3 miles23

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 416897. 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.

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.