County Past
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Knox County, Illinois

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

83newspaper titles
0digitized titles
7historic places
1800earliest paper
1825formed
49,967pop. 2020
95cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory lists 83 newspaper titles published in Knox County, Illinois, with the earliest starting in 1800. None of these titles are currently digitized on Chronicling America. The National Register of Historic Places includes 7 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1966; 1 is also National Historic Landmark. Most listings are in or near Galesburg, Knoxville, Oneida.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers published in Knox

Library of Congress
83 newspaper titles
TitlePlaceYears
Chronicle and HeraldYates City, Elmwood1800–?
East Galesburg TribuneEast Galesburg1800–1999
The Galesburg PlaindealerGalesburg1800–1999
The Galesburg PressGalesburg1800–1882
The Galesburg TribuneGalesburg1800–1999
The Knox IntelligencerGalesburg1848–1999
The Knoxville JournalKnoxville1849–1855
Galesburg Semi-Weekly DemocratGalesburg1850–1999
The Galesburg News-LetterGalesburg1850–1853
The Galesburg Free DemocratGalesburg1854–1869
Hemlandet Det Gamla Och Det NyaChicago, Galesburg1855–1870
The Knoxville Journal and Military Tract AdvertiserKnoxville1855–1899
The Knox RepublicanKnoxville1856–1867
The Abingdon MessengerAbingdon1857–1999
The Daily Free DemocratGalesburg1857–1999
FrihetswännenGalesburg1858–1899
The Abingdon ReporterAbingdon1858–1999
The Campaign RepublicanKnoxville1858–1858
Galesburg NonpareilGalesburg1859–1899
Galesburg Free PressGalesburg1860–1999
The Abingdon NonpareilAbingdon1860–1999
The Knox County ObserverKnoxville1860–1899
The Daily Morning NewsGalesburg1861–1999
Galesburg Weekly RegisterGalesburg1866–1869
Galesburg RegisterGalesburg1867–1872
The Knox County RepublicanKnoxville1867–1999
The LiberalGalesburg1867–1999
The LiberalGalesburg1867–1999
Galesburg TimesGalesburg1868–1899
The Altona MirrorAltona1868–1870
Galesburg Free PressGalesburg1869–1999
Galesburg RepublicanGalesburg1870–1872
The Daily Republican-RegisterGalesburg1870–1908
The Knox County DemocratAbingdon1870–1899
The Galesburg Daily RegisterGalesburg1871–1872
The Galesburg Daily RepublicanGalesburg1872–1999
Daily Register and RepublicanGalesburg1873–1879
Galesburg Republican and RegisterGalesburg1873–1999
The Daily PressGalesburg1874–1882
Abingdon ExpressAbingdon1876–1899
Abingdon KnoxonianAbingdon1876–1999
The East Knox NewsYates City1876–1899
The KnoxonianAbingdon1876–1899
The Daily RepublicanKnoxville1877–1999
The Maquon Weekly Times and Spoon River GazetteMaquon1877–1999
The Altona JournalAltona1879–1999
Industrial BannerYates City1880–1999
The Abingdon ArgusAbingdon1880–1999
The EnterpriseAbingdon1880–1899
The Farmington BugleFarmington, Yates City1880–1992
The AmericanGalesburg1884–1999
The Illinois GlobeGalesburg1884–1999
The Abingdon EnterpriseAbingdon1890–1899
The Enterprise-HeraldAbingdon1890–1903
Galesburg SpectatorGalesburg1891–1902
The Galesburg Daily MailGalesburg1891–1895
Liberty, Galesburg1892–1999
The Galesburg MailGalesburg1892–1895
Galesburg Labor NewsGalesburg1895–1987
The Galesburg Evening MailGalesburg1895–1927
The Abingdon KodakAbingdon1897–1999
The Abingdon KodakAbingdon1897–1999
Knox County NewsKnoxville1899–?
Galesburg GazetteGalesburg1902–1999
The Abingdon Enterprise-HeraldAbingdon1903–1999
The Abingdon Enterprise-HeraldAbingdon1903–1999
The Galva NewsGalva, Galesburg1916–?
The Daily Register-MailGalesburg1927–1956
The Galesburg PostGalesburg1928–?
The Illinois StarGalesburg1935–?
The Five Towns and R.F.D. VisitorGalesburg1941–1999
Galesburg Civilian Defense BulletinGalesburg1942–?
The Galesburg IlliniGalesburg1946–1949
Abingdon ArgusAbingdon1952–1987
Galesburg Register-MailGalesburg1956–1978
Abingdon IndependentAbingdon1960–1999
Free VoiceGalesburg1976–1999
The ArgusAbingdon1987–2003
The Abingdon ArgusAbingdon2003–?
The Altona RecordAltona?–
The Illinois DemocratGalesburg?–
The Knoxville JournalKnoxville?–
The Maquon ChronicleMaquon?–

Source: Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory. “Digitized” links lead to page images on Chronicling America.

Coverage timeline

Newspapers

Each bar is one title’s publication span. brown = digitized on Chronicling America Open-ended runs extend to today.

18001856191319692026

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

6 of 7 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

7 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Conger, J. Newton, HouseOneidaBuilding1979
Galesburg Historic DistrictGalesburgDistrict1976
Knox County Courthouse and Hall of RecordsKnoxvilleBuilding1992
Knox County JailKnoxvilleBuilding1992
Meetinghouse of the Central Congregational ChurchGalesburgBuilding1976
Old Main, Knox College NHLGalesburgBuilding1966
Walnut Grove FarmKnoxvilleDistrict1989

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Knox was formed in 1825 (1825-01-13) from Fulton.

KNOX created from FULTON and Non-County Area 5 attached to FULTON.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Knox County population from 1830 to 2020 (Census historical series).

62k31k27418301840188019201930196020002020
183018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
2747,06028,66338,34443,61246,72752,25054,36661,28061,60755,83649,967

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

95 cemeteries and 2 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 80 of 95 listed
NameLatLon
Abingdon Cemetery40.81111-90.40824
Alm's House Cemetery40.91837-90.28318
Altona Cemetery41.10919-90.16579
Blakeslee Cemetery40.74099-90.10038
Boydston - Dawdy Cemetery40.77244-90.40283
Bradford Cemetery40.91196-90.12331
Brookside Cemetery40.94197-90.40207
Bruner Cemetery41.08966-90.33799
Brush Creek Cemetery40.87254-90.33624
Butterfield Family Cemetery40.9104-90.30433
Caldwell Family Cemetery40.95446-90.02094
Catterton Cemetery40.85985-90.08046
Center Prairie Cemetery40.99683-90.00406
Cherry Grove Cemetery40.81919-90.40936
Clark Chapel Cemetery40.84436-90.19251
Clay Cemetery40.91797-90.43964
Cook Cemetery40.81075-90.2242
Corbin Cemetery40.90806-90.08154
Deatherage Cemetery41.07822-90.39025
East Linwood and Linwood Cemetery40.94586-90.40123
Elba Cemetery40.8515-90.0425
Elias Bragg Cemetery40.80115-90.28262
Etherly Cemetery40.99337-90.08595
Ferguson Cemetery40.86488-90.24995
Fink Cemetery40.91865-90.07567
Fraker Cemetery41.10058-90.00288
Fuller Cemetery41.05294-90.42368
Galesburg Memorial Park Cemetery40.94528-90.4069
Galesburg Research Cemetery41.0043-90.36466
Galva Cemetery41.1458-90.04083
Garret Cemetery41.00694-90.06545
Gilson Cemetery40.85969-90.19726
Grim CemeteryNoneNone
Gum Cemetery41.00911-90.36934
Harper Cemetery40.79361-90.25771
Harshbarger Cemetery40.85121-90.14686
Haynes Cemetery40.83084-90.29865
Headland CemeteryNoneNone
Henderson Cemetery41.02813-90.35304
Henderson Grove Cemetery41.01692-90.41053
Hermon Christian Cemetery40.75823-90.32053
Hermon Methodist Cemetery40.75865-90.31973
Hope Cemetery40.94671-90.37739
Housh Cemetery40.79389-90.18323
Hunt Cemetery40.72559-90.42013
Junk Cemetery41.05997-90.36077
Kightlinger Cemetery40.82658-90.03516
Knoxville Cemetery40.91616-90.28346
Larson Cemetery41.1141-90.13591
Lewis Cemetery40.98356-90.40225
Linwood Cemetery40.94586-90.40401
Maquon Cemetery40.8082-90.14749
Martin Cemetery41.04622-90.13233
Mather Cemetery40.84716-90.23358
Mc Callister Cemetery40.86566-90.22024
Moon CemeteryNoneNone
Mormon CemeteryNoneNone
Myers Cemetery40.95717-90.1655
Oak Lawn Memorial Gardens41.01237-90.38423
Old Scotch Cemetery41.02146-90.12754
Oneida Cemetery41.0794-90.21125
Ontario Cemetery41.08551-90.30845
Ouderkirk Cemetery40.79337-90.17179
Parker Cemetery40.94644-90.03861
Philip Nance Memorial CemeteryNoneNone
Pickrel CemeteryNoneNone
Pleasant Hill Cemetery40.82211-90.00535
Rice - Blue Cemetery41.03837-90.38582
Rio Baptist Cemetery41.08644-90.39045
Rio Cemetery41.11114-90.39818
Robbins Cemetery41.0564-90.28753
Robinson CemeteryNoneNone
Russell Cemetery40.88599-90.20061
Sage CemeteryNoneNone
Saint Josephs Cemetery40.93183-90.41018
Saint Marys Cemetery40.94852-90.32403
Salem Cemetery40.99573-90.05736
Smith Cemetery41.01132-90.09832
Soperville Cemetery41.0144-90.40187
Summitt - Douglas Cemetery40.78793-90.08621
Historical populated places — 2 of 2
NameLatLon
Bridgeport40.74337-90.23707
Burnside40.76948-90.27346

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Knox County, Illinois

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.