Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
From the record
“The Power Farmstead is a historic farm located on County Road 9500N east of Cantrall, Illinois. George Power, a prominent early settler of northern Sangamon County, established the farm in the 1820s.”
Wikipedia article Power Farmstead, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 68 National Register listings published here for Sangamon County · listed in 1989 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.89000341- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The date of the first settlement in what is now Fancy Creek township, was 1819. Among the earliest settlers were Stephen England and his son David, William Higgins, John Cline, Robert McClelland, Levi, Wyatt and William G. Cantrall, Thomas Constant, John Strode, George Power, EliphaletHawley, John Bracson, Aquilla Davis, Thomas Hargis, Thomas Strawbridge, Garrett Elkin, William F. Elkin, Thomas Brown and Andrew Clamo.
Stephen England was born June 12, IV^S, in Virginia. His pai'ents removed to Bath county, Kentucky. Stephen was there married about 1Y91, to Anna Harper. In 1813, the family moved to Ohio, and in the fall of 1818, to Madison county, Illinois. The following winter Stephen England, with two of his sons-in-laAv, came up to the San-ga-ma country to explore it. The nearest habitation to where Springfield now stands, was on the south bank of the Sangamon river, near Avheie the Chicago and Alton railroad crosses. They found a man named William Higgins living in a cabin there, which he had built in January, 1819. They remained over night with Mr. Higgins, and crossed to the north side of the river, each selecting a spot on which to make a home. In order to prevent others who might come after from choosing the same ground, they cut a few logs, laid them across each other in three piles, and each man cut his initials on a tree near by, as evidence thai the land was claimed. That was near what was soon called Higgins' creek, but is now called Cantrall's creek. They returned to their families, and early in March, 1819, Stephen England, his son David, his sons-in-law, Andrew Cline and Wyatt Cantrall, returned to their claims for the purpose of commencing improvements. The night after their arrival snow, fell about one foot deep, and the weather was colder than it had been at any time during the winter. They commenced work, and Mr. England and his son soon had their house up, roofed, and the door and chimney place cut out. The other two men had their materials on the ground. By that time the melting snow warned them that they must cross the river at once, or they might be delayed several weeks. They returned to their families, and attempted to move them, but the ground was so soft from melting snow that their teams were unequal to the task of drawing the wagons with their heavy loads, and they again left their families. The same men returned, accompanied by two of the daughters of Mr. England. They then completed their houses, cleared land, planted their crops, and returned to Madison county for their families, bringing them to their new homes about the first of June, 1819.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 17 fires within 5 miles of Power Farmstead
between 2005 and 2014, burning about 114 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 burning
11
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
6
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
3 workings within 5 miles of Power Farmstead: 3 past producers.
None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Cantrall, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 6 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 flood.
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.
Numerous trees and power lines were blown down across Cantrall, Williamsville, Sherman, Buffalo and Springfield. One person was injured in Springfield when a tree fell on their car.
Persistent thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall during the early evening in Sangamon County and the western half of Springfield with 2.50 to 6.00 inches in less than three hours. Some locations reported more than 3.00 inches of rain between 1700 and 1800 CST. Numerous city streets in Springfield were closed due to the flooding, including all of the roads in the vicinity of the Illinois State Fairgrounds where the annual State Fair was starting. A total of 58 camper trailers and 25 vehicles were damaged on the State Fairgrounds, where nearly 50 people were rescued in the camping area. No injuries were reported. Many livestock buildings were flooded, the Grandstand concert was cancelled, and fair officials closed the entrance/exit gates to keep people from leaving due to the extensive street flooding. In other areas of Springfield, 48 water rescues were made on city streets and viaducts by first responders, with no injuries reported. In other parts of the county, rural roads north of Springfield toward Cantrall, and west of Springfield toward New Berlin were impassable. State Highways 4, 29, 97 and 125 were also closed in spots due to flowing water and flooding.
Thunderstorm winds blew off part of a roof on a double wide mobile home and broke several windows in the grade school in Cantrall. Also, numerous trees were blown down in Cantrall.
A tornado touched down 1.6 miles southwest of Cantrall at 12:15 AM CDT on May 23rd. The tornado tracked northeastward, damaging a farm and destroying an outbuilding and several trees before crossing into far southeastern Menard County at 12:20 AM CDT.
Persistent thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall during the early evening in Sangamon County and the western half of Springfield with 2.50 to 6.00 inches in less than three hours. Some locations reported more than 3.00 inches of rain between 1700 and 1800 CST. Numerous city streets in Springfield were closed due to the flooding, including all of the roads in the vicinity of the Illinois State Fairgrounds where the annual State Fair was starting. A total of 58 camper trailers and 25 vehicles were damaged on the State Fairgrounds, where nearly 50 people were rescued in the camping area. No injuries were reported. Many livestock buildings were flooded, the Grandstand concert was cancelled, and fair officials closed the entrance/exit gates to keep people from leaving due to the extensive street flooding. In other areas of Springfield, 48 water rescues were made on city streets and viaducts by first responders, with no injuries reported. In other parts of the county, rural roads north of Springfield toward Cantrall, and west of Springfield toward New Berlin were impassable. State Highways 4, 29, 97 and 125 were also closed in spots due to flowing water and flooding. Due to the extent of the flooding and additional rainfall up to 1.00 inch in some locations, many roads remained flooded into the early morning hours of August 13th.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
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.
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