Saybrook, Illinois
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1952 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Cheney's Grove Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61770. The Survey maps it on the Saybrook quadrangle. 654 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 801 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSaybrook fell from 693 to 654 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 | 693 | |
| 2020 | 654 | -39 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 12 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.
- 1952 USGS Arrowsmith quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Saybrook quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Champaign quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1990 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
In the county-history sources
13,494 words on this townshipThe Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois : Containing Two Hundred and Sixty-one Sketches of Old Settlers, a Complete Historical Sketch of the Black Hawk War and Descriptions of All Matters of Interest Relating to McLean County, published 1874 names this settlement in its chapter on Cheney's Grove Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Thomas Cunningham was born November 18, 1818, in Clark County, Indiana. (For ancestry of the family see sketch of King S. Cunningham.) The parents of Thomas Cunningham were good people and very kind to their children, but were careful to enfore strict obedience and always set a good example. They are both buried in Saybrook Cemetery.
Passage source: The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois : Containing Two Hundred and Sixty-one Sketches of Old Settlers, a Complete Historical Sketch of the Black Hawk War and Descriptions of All Matters of Interest Relating to McLean County, published 1874.
Samuel R. Riggs was born February 13, 1838, was a soldier in the One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois Infantry, was at Vicksburg and Atlanta, and in many other engagements. He was severely wounded at the siege of Atlanta while relieving a picket guard. He was then commanding a company. He is now cashier of the Saybrook Bank owned b};- Riggs and Brother.
Passage source: The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois : Containing Two Hundred and Sixty-one Sketches of Old Settlers, a Complete Historical Sketch of the Black Hawk War and Descriptions of All Matters of Interest Relating to McLean County, published 1874.
After Mr. W. K. Stansberry was married he stopped his hunting, except occasionally for bee-trees. Year before last he found thirty bee-trees from which he took three hundred pounds of honey. Last year he found twenty-one bee-trees. He has in the house honey which is three years old. He is about five feet and six inches in height, is heavy set, and weighs one hundred and eighty pounds. He is a good-natured man and would seem to be on good terms with all of his neighbors. He has dark eyes and heavy black hair, which has hardly }^et begun to show the effects of time. He is somewhat stout in appearance, has a clear and rather heavy voice and a heavy, black moustache, and would be called a good-looking man if he would dress himself up. He is now the postmaster at Saybrook. He has been a very temperate man and has never drank whisky. He says that if he had his life to live over he would be a preacher !
Passage source: The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois : Containing Two Hundred and Sixty-one Sketches of Old Settlers, a Complete Historical Sketch of the Black Hawk War and Descriptions of All Matters of Interest Relating to McLean County, published 1874.
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 Cheney's Grove Township - it names this place 2 more 2 times.
Fires near this place
2 since 2020Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Saybrook in 2020, burning about 5 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 July 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 2020-0000012 |
| 2 November 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 2020-0000111 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Saybrook: 4 past producers. None of them 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D. Rowe Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| H. Darling Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Ryan Pit No. 39 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Tipsord Saybrook Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
12 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Saybrook in 12 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 5 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Saybrook | $200,000 | Trees were uprooted and numerous homes had shingle damage in Saybrook. |
| March 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Saybrook | $126,000 | A microburst produced damage to trees roofs and machine sheds in town. 28 structures received damage. |
| December 2025 | Tornado (EF1) | Saybrook | - | A tornado touched down about 3 miles east-southeast of Saybrook at 3:24 PM CST. The tornado destroyed a large outbuilding, throwing the debris to the east-northeast. It then quickly dissipated before reaching the Ford County line at 3:25 PM CST. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Saybrook | - | Numerous trees and powerlines were blown down. |
| March 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Saybrook | - | Shed destroyed. |
| June 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Saybrook | - | A tornado briefly touched down in a field one mile south of Saybrook. No damage was reported. |
| May 1995 | Tornado (F0) | Saybrook | - | A tornado touched down 3 SW of Saybrook knocking down numerous large trees before lifting 2 NW of Saybrook. No one was injured and no damage estimates were available. |
| August 2021 | Hail | Saybrook | - | no account filed |
| May 2019 | Hail | Saybrook | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Saybrook | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Saybrook | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Saybrook | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| McNulta | 4.3 miles | 14 | |
| Arrowsmith | 5.8 miles | 12 | |
| Bellflower | 6.0 miles | 12 | |
| Glen Avon | 6.6 miles | 12 | |
| Laurette | 7.1 miles | 12 | |
| Troster | 7.9 miles | 14 | |
| Sabina | 8.6 miles | 12 | |
| Kumler | 9.2 miles | 12 |
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 Saybrook | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2672226 | 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 418051. 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.
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.






