BlockWilliamsfield, Illinois
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1941 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Truro Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61489. It lies near Tucker Hollow. The Survey maps it on the Williamsfield quadrangle. 575 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 705 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresWilliamsfield fell from 578 to 575 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 | 578 | |
| 2020 | 575 | -3 (-1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 16 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.
- 1941 USGS Maquon quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1943 USGS Maquon quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Williamsfield quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Galesburg quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Galesburg quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
8,259 words on this townshipAnnals of Knox County : Commemorating Centennial of Admission of Illinois As a State of the Union in 1818, published 1921 names this settlement in its chapter on Truro Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Next to Persifer, this is the roughest township in Knox County. Spoon River enters it in Section 12 and flows out from Section 31, winding throught it for fifteen or sixteen miles and touching sixteen sections. This river and its branches, which liberally water Truro, pass through timber land which formerly extended over half the township. Of late years, however, almost all of this vast timber has been gradually disappearing, the land on which it stood having been converted into almost treeless pastures, which have proved a source of greater profit. North of Spoon River, the land is mostly rolling, on the south stretches a broad level, fertile prairie. About one-sixth of the township is underlaid with a good quality of coal which with the timber affords an excellent supply of fuel.
Passage source: Annals of Knox County : Commemorating Centennial of Admission of Illinois As a State of the Union in 1818, published 1921.
April 5, 1853, the township was organized. The first election of officers resulted in the choice of the following persons: Augustus Lapham, Supervisor; J. P. Cadwell, Clerk; Benjamin Sweat, Assessor; Levi Seward, Collector; Thomas Ross, Overseer of the Poor; Thomas Crawford, Luther Rice and Joseph Wilder, Highway Commissioners; Thomas Ross
Passage source: Annals of Knox County : Commemorating Centennial of Admission of Illinois As a State of the Union in 1818, published 1921.
The population in 1860 was seven hundred and thirteen, in 1870, eight hundred and ninety-nine; in 1880, seven hundred and seventeen; in 1890, eight hundred and sixty-five. For present population, see the population table for county.
Passage source: Annals of Knox County : Commemorating Centennial of Admission of Illinois As a State of the Union in 1818, published 1921.
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 Truro Township - it names this place 2 more 2 times.
Fires near this place
1 since 2019Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Williamsfield in 2019, 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 |
|---|---|
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 March 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 2019153 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
7 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Williamsfield in 7 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 3 hail, 2 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1998 | Tornado (F1) | Williamsfield | 1 hurt, $2,000,000 | A tornado touched down 3.5 miles southwest of Williamsfield. It destroyed a steel corn crib, blew down a large tree which damaged a home. Also, several windows were blown out on the home. As the tornado travelled east it caused major tree damage for a mile. Then it blew a large tree onto another home and destroyed an empty silo. Next it destroyed a barn and two outbuildings, knocked yet another tree onto a home, as well as, breaking several windows and blowing several 2x4s into the home. Further down the road, the roof and east walls of two homes were destroyed. Then for the last half of a mile, ten power poles were blown down, as well as, numerous trees and a barn sustained moderate damage. One woman sustained minor injuries from flying glass. Damage is estimated around $2 million. |
| July 2024 | Tornado (EF1) | Williamsfield | - | This short tornado touched down two miles north of Williamsfield, west of North State Route 180, and moved southeast for one mile while producing significant tree damage along Route 180 and in the field to the east. Many of the trees were blocking Route 180. The tornado lifted just south of County Road 1660 North. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Williamsfield | - | A power line was blown onto a road in Williamsfield. |
| April 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Williamsfield | - | One mile south of Williamsfield, a shed was destroyed. No injuries were reported. |
| February 2017 | Hail | Williamsfield | - | no account filed |
| June 2015 | Hail | Williamsfield | - | no account filed |
| March 2005 | Hail | Williamsfield | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eugene | 2.4 miles | 16 | |
| Truro | 2.8 miles | 16 | |
| Dahinda | 5.0 miles | 16 | |
| Trenton Corners | 5.4 miles | 16 | |
| Elba Center | 5.6 miles | 16 | |
| Oak Run | 7.5 miles | 17 | |
| Appleton | 7.8 miles | 17 | |
| Victoria | 8.9 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 Williamsfield | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2331025 | 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 421213. 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.