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Tower Hill, Illinois

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1942 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Tower Hill Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62571. The Survey maps it on the Tower Hill quadrangle. 485 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 659 feet above sea level.

Tower Hill within Shelby County

Population over time

2 figures

Tower Hill fell from 611 to 485 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
2010611
2020485-126 (-21%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 13 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

4,289 words on this township

Historic Sketch and Biographical Album of Shelby County, Illinois, published 1900 names this settlement in its chapter on Tower Hill Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

situated near Yantisville, seven miles directly north of Tower Hill, has taught Calvinism in that part of the county. Never a strong organi¬ zation, during its thirty years of existence, averaging about 30 to 40 members. It too, has sent out to the towns and cities various addi¬ tions to their working force. An excellent brick building, erected some years ago. affords a com¬ fortable church home, and a band of devoted members, mostly women, keep up a steady effort for righteousness. Brighter prospects, under the Illinois plan of Home Missions, are in view for this faithful little band of loyal workers.

Passage source: Historic Sketch and Biographical Album of Shelby County, Illinois, published 1900.

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 Tower Hill Township - it names this place 2 more 2 times.

Fires near this place

11 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Tower Hill between 2009 and 2015, burning about 22 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 burning6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Smoking1

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
30 September 2015Smoking4.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources4CORNAC
16 September 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesSTATEPANA1
7 April 2013Debris and open burning2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources130026
6 April 2013Debris and open burning2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources130025
6 April 2013Debris and open burning3.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources130025
6 March 2009Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesUNION
18 March 2009Debris and open burning1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesROSINSKI
18 March 2009Debris and open burning1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesROSINSKI

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Shelby County

Storms near this place

26 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tower Hill in 26 storm reports between 1999 and 2025: 18 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 2 tornado, 1 flash flood. The reports record 4 injuries. 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
June 1999Tornado (F2)Tower Hill4 hurt, $2,000,000A tornado touched down on the east side of Lake Pana in Shelby County. Four homes and one mobile home were destroyed. A woman in the mobile home was injured and hospitalised for a time. A mile northeast near Route 16, several more homes were damaged or destroyed and two people in one of the destroyed homes were injured. Debris was scattered in the nearby fields. For the next four miles, several homes sustained moderate damage, numerous outbuildings and grain bins were either damaged or destroyed, and one woman sustained minor cuts and bruises. As the tornado moved to the northeast into the Westervelt area, numerous trees were blown down, buildings sustained minor damage, and 9 large grain bins were destroyed. The tornado remained on the ground for another 4.5 miles, knocking down trees and power lines before lifting and dissipating 2 miles southwest of Findlay. Damage was estimated around $2 million.
May 2009Tornado (EF0)Tower Hill$60,000A tornado briefly touched down 2 miles south of Tower Hill, then tracked eastward to 2 miles south-southeast of Tower Hill. A shed was severely damaged and front porches were torn off several homes. Shingles were blown off houses and numerous trees were damaged.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindTower Hill$55,000Numerous trees were blown down in Tower Hill, some onto roofs of houses.
April 2014Thunderstorm WindTower Hill$24,000The roof of a machine shed and several trees were damaged 2 miles northwest of Tower Hill.
October 2010Thunderstorm WindTower Hill$20,000A trailer was blown off its foundation.
April 2025Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-A few tree branches were blown down.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-A large tree was split.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-Shingles were blown off a few homes and corn crops were flattened on the south edge of town.
August 2023Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-A pontoon boat was flipped over onto a wooden pier on Lake Pana, and a few 8-inch diameter tree limbs were snapped.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-Power lines were blown down.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-The fire department was damaged, a metal roof was blown off a church, and a tree fell onto a car.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-A large tree branch was snapped.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-A power line was blown onto a house in Tower Hill.
August 2012Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-A 3-foot diameter tree was uprooted.
April 2011Flash FloodTower Hill-Several thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall rates of more than one inch per hour for four hours in much of southern and central Shleby County. Most rural roads were water covered and impassable.
May 2004Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-Thunderstorm winds blew down numerous trees, tree limbs and power lines. One tree landed on a garage in the Cowden area causing minor damage.
May 2003Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-Thunderstorm winds blew down numerous trees in Tower Hill, Cowden, Shelbyville, Fancher and Mode. One garage in Fancher was damaged from a fallen tree. Also, numerous power lines were blown down.
June 2002Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-Numerous trees, tree limbs, power poles and power lines were blown down.
May 2001Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-Half of a 12 inch diameter sycamore tree was blown down. No structural damage was reported.
July 2001Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-Numerous trees were blown down, as well as, power lines and several power poles. In Tower Hill, one tree fell onto an unoccupied car, damaging it.
May 2000Thunderstorm WindTower Hill-Thunderstorm winds destroyed a large grain silo, damaged a quonset building's roof, and blew down numerous trees in the area.
April 2011HailTower Hill-no account filed
May 2011HailTower Hill-no account filed
May 2002HailTower Hill-no account filed
August 2001HailTower Hill-no account filed
April 2000HailTower Hill-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Shelby 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
Westminster (historical)2.5 miles13
Dollville3.8 miles13
Lakewood5.4 miles13
Henton6.0 miles13
Williamsburg Hill6.2 miles13
Williamsburg (historical)6.5 miles13
Westervelt8.2 miles14
Shelbyville9.1 miles14

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 Tower HillAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q745844The 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 419794. 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.