Union, Illinois

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1938 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Coral Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60180. The Survey maps it on the Marengo South quadrangle. 551 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 840 feet above sea level.

Union within McHenry County

Population over time

2 figures

Union fell from 580 to 551 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	580
2020	551	-29 (-5%)

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.

1938 USGS Genoa quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
1954 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
1955 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1963 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
1968 USGS Marengo South quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1981 USGS Elgin quadrangle1:100000

What happened here

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

From History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885 - Coral Township

History Of Mo Hknbt Oountv

Illinois (Second Board of Trade Regiment) Infantry, and was commissioned Lieutenant of Company I. At the battle of Kenesaw Mountain he was shot through the body, and left by the Surgeons on the field for dead, but through the care of his comrade, William Johnson, recovered. He was married Jan. 1, 1866, to Mary A.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

42,214 words on this township

History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885 names this settlement in its chapter on Coral Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The first marriage in this township took place Aug. 25, 1839. The parties joined in wedlock were Samuel H. Bullard and Samantha Dunham; ceremony performed by Beman Crandall, Justice of the Peace. The first birth was that of Mary Eddy, daughter of Robert Eddy, in 1837. The first person who died in the township was John Hamilton in 1836. The first cemetery was laid out in 1838, on section 8. Not long after this was established, burying grounds were laid out at Harmony. After Union became a village a cemetery was also laid out there. In 1837, in a private house, the first school was taught by Caroline Cobb, since the wife of

Passage source: History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885.

The village of Union was named by William Jackson, who had already given the name of Union to the Postoffice. Mr. Jackson owned the land where the village now stands and laid out the place in 1851 on the event of the railroad coming through Coral Township. The first house was built by F. M. Mead, in 1851. It still stands and is occupied by the station agent. The first store was opened in 1852, by a young man by the name of Hathaway, who was in the employ of Mr. Kimble, of Elgin. It is the same store now occupied by Mr. Allen. Shortly after a grocery store was opened which was run but a short time. The village has contained two stores most of the time since started. The first drug store was started by Hungerford & Smith abou t the year 1857. Cutler & Vanpelt, started a good drug store about the year 1868; this store is now owned by J. A. Crandall.

The postoffice was established in Union in the fall of 1852. The first Postmaster, Mr. Cannon, held the office but one year, when F. M. Mead became his successor, who kept the office some three or four years. Then Mr. Sheldon was the Postmaster a year or two. He was succeeded by S. A. Randall, who held it till 1860, when he was succeeded by Wm. H. Alden, who was Postmaster about five years. Next appointed was Wm. M. Baldwin, who held it till the assassination of President Lincoln, when he was succeeded by J. D. Bliss, who held it three years. The present incumbent, N. C. Gardner, was appointed April 13, 1869. About the year 1876 a cheese factory was built in Union, by Mr. W. A. Boice. It was afterward burned down and has since been rebuilt.

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 Coral Township - it names this place 18 more 18 times.

Fires near this place

2 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Union between 2003 and 2010, burning under an acre 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
Smoking	1
Debris and open burning	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
28 September 2010	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	GOODMARK
17 June 2003	Smoking	under an acre	Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in McHenry County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Union: 2 producers, 2 past producers. 2 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Griebel Trucking Co. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Metcalf Sand & Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
North Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Union Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in McHenry County

Storms near this place

17 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Union in 17 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 5 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 3 heavy rain, 2 flash flood. 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
August 2007	Flood	Union	$500,000	Flooding continued from heavy rain and flash flooding from earlier on August 7th. Boot Creek overflowed at Hemmingson Road. Picnic tables floating near a car barn in three feet of water. Water flowing over the railway station platform. Many streets are closed due to flooding in Union. Marengo measured 5.10 inches of rain and Woodstock measured 4.35 inches of rain.
August 2007	Flash Flood	Union	$50,000	Railway Museum flooded and evacuated, a trailer park and campground area was also flooded and evacuated. Water rose one foot in 20 minutes.
June 2024	Heavy Rain	Union	-	A 24 hour rainfall of 5 was recorded in Union.
August 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Union	-	Main St was blocked south of Park St in Union due to downed power lines.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Union	-	A photo shared on social media showed damage to the exterior fascia of the roof of a house. Small tree limbs were also blown down.
July 2022	Heavy Rain	Union	-	A private weather station measured 4.34 inches of rain in about 1.5 hours.
July 2022	Flash Flood	Union	-	A photo showed multiple feet of standing water at the Illinois Railway Museum near Union.
September 2018	Flood	Union	-	Webcams at the Illinois Railway Museum showed standing flood waters that were deep enough to close the Museum. Storm total rainfall of 4.43 inches was measured nearby, 0.8 miles south southwest of Woodstock.
June 2017	Heavy Rain	Union	-	Heavy rainfall of 1.25 inches was measured in 30 minutes.
April 2014	Hail	Union	-	Hail up to the size of quarters covered the ground at the Illinois Railway Museum.
March 2012	Hail	Union	-	Quarter size hail was reported near Olson and Hemmingsen Roads.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Union	-	Tree limbs were broken.
April 2015	Hail	Union	-	no account filed
May 2014	Hail	Union	-	no account filed
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Union	-	no account filed
April 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Union	-	no account filed
May 1996	Tornado (F1)	Union	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in McHenry 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
Coral	1.6 miles	13
Franklinville	3.4 miles	15
Marengo	3.7 miles	13
Indian Trails	4.5 miles	13
Harmony	5.0 miles	13
Riley	5.6 miles	13
Coyne	5.9 miles	18
Woodstock	7.5 miles	18

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 Union	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2372676	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 420010. 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.