County Past
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Lee County, Illinois

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

47newspaper titles
0digitized titles
10historic places
1800earliest paper
1839formed
34,145pop. 2020
59cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory lists 47 newspaper titles published in Lee 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 10 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1982. Most listings are in or near Dixon, Amboy, Franklin Grove.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers published in Lee

Library of Congress
47 newspaper titles
TitlePlaceYears
Compton RecordCompton1800–1999
Lee County TimesPaw Paw1800–1959
The Amboy NewsAmboy1800–?
The Dixon TelegraphDixon1851–1857
The Dixon Telegraph and Lee County HeraldDixon1851–1851
Lee County TimesAmboy1855–1856
The Dixon TranscriptDixon1855–1899
Amboy TimesAmboy1856–1866
Daily WhisperDixon1856–1856
The FremonterDixon1856–1856
Dixon Weekly RepublicanDixon1857–1857
The Dixon MonitorDixon1858–1859
The Dixon TelegraphDixon1860–1869
The Lee County JournalAmboy1866–1870
Dixon Weekly HeraldDixon1868–1869
Lee County DemocratDixon1868–1872
Franklin ReporterFranklin Grove1870–1999
The Amboy JournalAmboy1870–1913
The Dixon SunDixon1872–1999
The Ashton NewsAshton1873–1899
The Dixon TelegraphDixon1873–1899
Ashton SentinelAshton1878–1899
Daily TelegraphDixon1883–1885
Evening TelegraphDixon1885–1901
The Ashton NewsAshton1889–1899
The Ashton PressAshton1889–1889
The Evening StarDixon1891–1899
The Dixon SunDixon1893–1894
The Dixon Daily SunDixon1894–1909
The Ashton GazetteAshton1895–?
The Dixon StarDixon1898–1904
Dixon TelegraphDixon1899–1999
The Amboy NewsAmboy1899–1899
Dixon Weekly CitizenDixon1900–1999
Dixon Evening TelegraphDixon1901–1985
The Dixon Daily StarDixon1904–1909
The Dixon Tri-Weekly StarDixon1904–1999
The Dixon Daily NewsDixon1909–1915
Dixon Daily LeaderDixon1914–1915
Dixon Morning LeaderDixon1915–1917
Dixon Evening LeaderDixon1917–1919
Lee County Farm NewsAmboy1922–1929
The Lee County FarmerAmboy1922–1999
The Green Riverite1942–1943
The Daily GazetteSterling, Rock Falls, Dixon1951–?
The Dixon TelegraphDixon1985–?
Dixon Semi=weekly SunDixon?–

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 10 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

10 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Amboy Illinois Central DepotAmboyBuilding1992
Brookner, Christopher, HouseDixonBuilding1984
Dixon Downtown Historic DistrictDixonDistrict2012
Illinois Central Stone Arch Railroad BridgesDixonStructure1987
Lowell ParkDixonDistrict2006
Nachusa HouseDixonBuilding1983
Reagan's, Ronald, Boyhood HomeDixonBuilding1982
Van Epps, William H., HouseDixonBuilding1982
Whitney, Col. Nathan, HouseFranklin GroveBuilding1990
Wright, Stephen, HousePaw PawBuilding2005

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Lee was formed in 1839 (1839-02-27) from Ogle.

LEE created from OGLE.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Lee County population from 1840 to 2020 (Census historical series).

39k20k2,0351840188019201930196020002020
18401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
2,03517,65127,49129,89428,00434,60436,45138,74936,32836,06234,145

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

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

Cemeteries — 59 of 59 listed
NameLatLon
Ashton Cemetery41.86031-89.2251
Baird Cemetery41.62197-89.26714
Binghampton Cemetery41.71919-89.31078
Bradford Cemetery41.79914-89.25627
Brooklyn Lutheran Cemetery41.64107-89.09015
Burket Cemetery41.83705-89.43464
Cemetery41.65884-89.46141
Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens41.86059-89.49288
Cottage Hill Cemetery41.64132-89.02637
Degner Farm CemeteryNoneNone
Dewolf Cemetery41.79613-89.39034
Dixon Developmental Center Cemetery41.8668-89.47798
Ellsworth Cemetery41.71767-88.98936
Emmanuel Cemetery41.79158-89.49634
Emmert Cemetery41.83805-89.36585
Evergreen Cemetery41.6684-89.2393
First Lutheran Church Cemetery41.78967-88.9666
Fisk Cemetery41.72563-89.06248
Franklin Grove Cemetery41.84357-89.30507
Gap Grove CemeteryNoneNone
Gehant Farm Cemetery41.80912-89.21176
Girton Cemetery41.86725-89.38969
Greenwood Cemetery41.72548-89.54998
Greenwood CemeteryNoneNone
Harding Cemetery41.69453-89.00793
Holy Cross Cemetery41.72187-89.56856
Inlet Cemetery41.73361-89.23295
Lee County Poor Farm CemeteryNoneNone
Melugin Grove Cemetery41.70825-89.09732
Mormon Cemetery41.69313-89.33565
Mount Union Cemetery41.87383-89.42811
Nathaniel Carter Williams Gravesite41.66278-89.40873
Nelson Cemetery41.80105-89.60149
Oakwood Cemetery41.84142-89.47251
Palmyra Cemetery41.87361-89.55963
Pine Grove Cemetery41.79416-89.55319
Prairie Repose Cemetery41.72762-89.34266
Prairieville Cemetery41.85076-89.61252
Reynolds Cemetery41.82333-89.15077
Rockwood Cemetery41.82483-89.54481
Saint Mary's Cemetery41.69862-89.14975
Saint Marys Cemetery41.5853-89.44648
Saint Marys Cemetery41.64285-89.22253
Saint Marys Cemetery41.59977-89.3045
Saint Marys Twin Grove German Cemetery41.76641-89.01953
Saint Patrick Cemetery41.62884-89.37383
Saint Patrick's Cemetery41.70288-89.34444
Samuel Cobb CemeteryNoneNone
Sandy Hill Cemetery41.63829-89.3111
South Paw Paw Cemetery41.66405-88.94145
Steward Cemetery41.84806-89.02381
Temperance Hill Cemetery41.7716-89.33839
Theiss Cemetery41.59949-89.25432
Twin Grove Cemetery41.76111-89.02952
Union Cemetery41.69658-89.1497
Union Cemetery41.84892-88.94192
West Burying GroundNoneNone
Woodside Cemetery41.72965-89.26865
Wyoming Cemetery41.67964-88.97606
Historical populated places — 2 of 2
NameLatLon
Melugin Grove41.70698-89.11259
Shelburn41.69753-89.34732

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 Lee County, Illinois

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