South Freeport, Illinois

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1942 and the latest in 1983. It stands in Silver Creek Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61032. The Survey maps it on the Forreston North quadrangle.

South Freeport within Stephenson County

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 14 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.

1942 USGS Forreston quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1945 USGS Forreston quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1954 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
1955 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1963 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
1981 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
1983 USGS Forreston North quadrangle1:24000

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Silver Creek township. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : Containing ... Biographical Sketches ... War Record ... Statistics ... Portraits of Early Settlers ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois, &c. .., published 1880 - Silver Creek Township

Water Power

One the most valuable and inexhaustible adjuncts to the development of wealth in the city and county, and an auxiliary which, though not fully utilized, has become valuable as a source of revenue, not only to the owners of the riparian rights, but to those leasing the privilege, is the water-power. The early settlers about Pecatonica River appreciated the value of the power that could be diverted therefrom more sensibly than those who came at a later day, when steam had been applied to move the vast amounts of machinery, which in pioneer times, though limited, were dependent upon the turbine, or over shot wheel to propel them, than a succeeding generation, and adapted the same to their uses almost before the prairie soil was broken.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

25,263 words on this township

The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : Containing ... Biographical Sketches ... War Record ... Statistics ... Portraits of Early Settlers ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois, &c. .., published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Silver Creek Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Along in 1878, the Monitor was purchased by the Stabeck brothers, editors of the Freeport and Davis Budget, for |l,000, was consolidated with that organ, and is to-day known among the enterprises which appeared on the newspaper horizon of Freeport, and after a season of brilliant scintillatings dissolved from view.

Passage source: The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : Containing ... Biographical Sketches ... War Record ... Statistics ... Portraits of Early Settlers ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois, &c. .., published 1880.

Nord WestUche Post. - The seemingly apparent need of a German organ of independent proclivities, influenced F. Krumme to venture a trial of the experiment in 1875. A brief experience, however, convinced him of the fact that but little support could be obtained in Freeport, whence he removed to Lake City, and finally to La Crosse, where he was greeted with encouragement equally as cheerful as that which had attended his efforts in Illinois, and abandoned the undertaking finally at the latter city.

The Freie Fresse was established some time in the year 1868, by leading representatives of the Republican party, for the purpose of educating the' Germans into a complete understanding of the facts and figures of the then existing situation. The facile pen was wielded by Christian Mueller and William Casper Schultz for nearly a year, when the enterprise was abandoned and the pursuit of converts concluded.

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 Silver Creek Township.

Fires near this place

12 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of South Freeport between 2010 and 2020, burning about 7 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/undetermined	6
Debris and open burning	5
Power generation/transmission/distribution	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
27 September 2017	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	17-0000102
5 May 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	1845
29 May 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	1046
18 May 2014	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	14-0000049
11 May 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	20-0000054
4 April 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	20-0000038
28 April 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	1032
26 April 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	1030

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Stephenson County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 15 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of South Freeport: 12 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Freeport Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Dwyer Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
F. Coffman Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Freeport City Eng.	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Kutz Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Meyers Property	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Nieman Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unnamed Limestone Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unnamed Limestone Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unnamed Limestone Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Stephenson 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Valley Creek (historical)	2.0 miles	15
Browns Mill	4.0 miles	15
Freeport	4.6 miles	15
Florence	5.0 miles	14
Evarts	5.3 miles	16
German Valley	5.5 miles	14
Ridott Corners	5.7 miles	16
Ridott	6.4 miles	16

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 423192. 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.