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Sherrard, Illinois

18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1912 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Richland Grove Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61281. The Survey maps it on the Matherville quadrangle. 692 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 801 feet above sea level.

Sherrard within Mercer County

On record in Sherrard

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Sherrard grew from 640 to 692 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
2010640
2020692+52 (+8%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 18 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

3,318 words on this township

Past and Present of Mercer County, Illinois, published 1914 names this settlement in its chapter on Richland Grove Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The Bank of Cable was conducted in the '90s by Evans & Jones, but assigned in December, 1895, and C. A. Samuelson of Sherrard was appointed to wind up the business. The assets were about twenty-one thousand dollars and the deposits amounted to sixteen thousand dollars. L. D. Thomason helped to wind up the affairs of the bank. Mr. Jones of the bank was finally arrested upon the charge of having received deposits after he knew the bank was insolvent. In recent years the town has not been as prosperous as it formerly was.

Passage source: Past and Present of Mercer County, Illinois, published 1914.

The Village of Sherrard was duly acknowledged May 1, 1894, and was laid out by Ransom R. Cable and H. B. Sudlow, and located on section 4. Since that date several additions to this town have been made. The coal branch of the Chicago, Rock Island 6c Pacific Railroad was extended east from Preemption to section 4, where the new coal shaft was sunk ninety-three feet deep, under the direction of David Sherrard, who platted forty-four acres there and commenced the Town of Sherrard about two and a half miles east of Cable. One of the first industries here was the Richland Grove Creamery, which ran during the cold weather of 1893-4, three days in the week. It ground feed for the farmers the other three days. During February, 1894, they paid $903 for cream and one day in April purchased 6.000 pounds of cream. Thev operated two separators. In the spring of 1894 it was made a postoffice. Other coal shafts were sunk, every one being about two hundred feet deep. In May, 1894, six houses were going up at one time. The first lots were sold in May, and by January 1, 1895, there were fifty houses, nearly all of them occupied by miners and their families. There were two lumber yards, two hotels, one livery stable, and a Congregational church was organized. P. L. Jones and G. M. Jones, of the firm of Evans & Jones, built a large hotel at that time. It was 44 by 50 feet, three stories high and contained twenty-eight rooms. It was steam heated and gas lighted. The banking firm of Evans & Jones started up at this time. In November, 1895, the village voted on the question of incorporation, there being cast forty-four votes for incorporation and fifty-five against it. The question was voted down because many of the voters did not desire to include within the town limits certain tracts of land which they thought should remain outside.

Passage source: Past and Present of Mercer County, Illinois, published 1914.

The Sherrard Banking Company began active operations early in 1896. David Sherrard was president; John A. Wilson, vice president; J. T. Vernon, cashier; directors, Charles Kinsey, T. A. Vernon, J. G. Clark, E. E. Sincox, Frank Sherrard and Alfred Lilliman. The bank formally opened for business on the first Monday in February. A Knights of Pythias lodge was organized here about this time. The Aledo knights went up there and carried into effect the organization.

Passage source: Past and Present of Mercer County, Illinois, published 1914.

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 Richland Grove Township - it names this place 2 more 2 times.

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Sherrard: 1 producer. All of them still produce. 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Barstow Plant No. 1 DredgeSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Mercer County

Storms near this place

19 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sherrard in 19 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 8 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 heavy rain. 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
May 2003HailSherrard$100,000Covered the ground
August 2003HailSherrard$100,000no account filed
June 2009Thunderstorm WindSherrard$25,000Wind gusts were estimated to be 60 mph 1 mile west southwest of Sherrard, IL around 607 pm June 27. A power outage was also observed.
June 2006LightningSherrard$25,000Lightning strike at 441 Highland Drive in the Frye Lake area; half of the house was damaged
March 2006HailSherrard$5,000no account filed
May 2025Thunderstorm WindSherrard-A public report of two 2 to 3 inch diameter tree branches snapped by thunderstorm winds.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindSherrard-A public report of 3 inch tree limbs down.
July 2024HailSherrard-A public report via Mping of penny size hail.
April 2024HailSherrard-A public report of nickel to quarter size hail.
August 2021Flash FloodSherrard-A few roads were reported impassible due to water over roads.
February 2017Thunderstorm WindSherrard-A public report of several 4 inch diameter tree branches down along the highway just south of Sherrard, Illinois was received.
August 2011Heavy RainSherrard-Storm total rainfall from this mornings thunderstorms.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindSherrard-Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph blew down some large tree branches 1 mile west southwest of Sherrard, IL at 613 am July 21.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindSherrard-Wind gusts estimated to be 60 mph were observed just west southwest of Sherrard, IL at 5:55 pm July 29.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindSherrard-Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph were observed 1 mile west southwest of Sherrard, IL at 613 am July 21.
June 2002Thunderstorm WindSherrard-Trees down.
April 2023HailSherrard-no account filed
April 2023HailSherrard-no account filed
June 2000HailSherrard-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Mercer 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
Cable2.4 miles18
Preemption4.2 miles18
Swedona4.2 miles12
Orangemans Hall5.4 miles18
Griffin5.5 miles11
Boden6.0 miles18
Matherville6.8 miles18
New Windsor8.7 miles11

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 SherrardAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2193504The 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 418376. 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.