County Past
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Macon County, Illinois

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

82newspaper titles
0digitized titles
11historic places
1800earliest paper
1829formed
103,998pop. 2020
55cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory lists 82 newspaper titles published in Macon 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 11 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1974. Most listings are in or near Decatur, Mount Zion, Oreana.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers published in Macon

Library of Congress
82 newspaper titles
TitlePlaceYears
Decatur Daily ReviewDecatur1800–1881
Decatur Weekly MagnetDecatur1800–1899
The Bulletin-SentinelDecatur1800–1999
The Decatur Daily TribuneDecatur1800–1999
The Decatur HeraldDecatur1800–1999
The Decatur MagnetDecatur1800–1899
The Decatur Weekly TribuneDecatur1800–1899
The EnterpriseWarrensburg1800–1999
The Evening BulletinDecatur1800–1999
The HeraldWarrensburg1800–1999
Decatur Weekly GazetteDecatur1850–1869
Decatur Weekly GazetteDecatur1850–1869
Decatur Weekly GazetteDecatur1851–1859
Decatur GazetteDecatur1852–1859
Decatur Daily ChronicleDecatur1855–1999
Illinois State ChronicleDecatur1855–1865
The Democratic HeraldDecatur1857–1899
Decatur Daily GazetteDecatur1859–1999
Daily Decatur RepublicanDecatur1867–1872
The Decatur RepublicanDecatur1867–1877
The Maroa TimesMaroa1867–1869
The Daily Evening MagnetDecatur1868–1899
The Daily MagnetDecatur1868–1899
The Decatur DemocratDecatur1870–1899
Decatur TribuneDecatur1872–1999
The Daily RepublicanDecatur1872–1875
The Maroa Weekly NewsMaroa1872–1899
The Decatur Local ReviewDecatur1873–1899
Magnet and TribuneDecatur1874–1999
Decatur Daily RepublicanDecatur1875–1894
The Daily Morning SunDecatur1876–1999
The Decatur Daily TimesDecatur1876–1999
Decatur Weekly RepublicanDecatur1877–1898
Blue Mound LeaderBlue Mound1880–?
The Decatur Morning HeraldDecatur1880–1890
The CycloneBlue Mound1883–1999
The Decatur Morning ReviewDecatur1883–1884
Daily Labor BulletinDecatur1885–1886
Labor BulletinDecatur1886–1899
The Daily ReviewDecatur1886–1888
Decatur Weekly DespatchDecatur1889–1999
The Decatur Daily DespatchDecatur1889–1899
The IndependentBlue Mound1889–1999
The Forsyth WorldForsyth1890–1999
The Herald-DespatchDecatur1890–1892
Decatur Daily ReviewDecatur1891–1917
Argenta HeraldArgenta1892–1892
The Argenta HustlerArgenta1892–1999
The Daily RepublicanDecatur1894–1899
The Herald-DespatchDecatur1895–1899
Decatur Morning NewsDecatur1899–1999
The Decatur HeraldDecatur1899–1980
African-American VoiceDecatur1900–?
African-American VoiceDecatur1900–?
Decatur Labor WorldDecatur1900–1999
Decatur Weekly NewsDecatur1900–1999
The Decatur Guild ReporterDecatur1900–1999
The Harristown MonitorHarristown1906–1999
The Decatur Daily WorldDecatur1909–1999
Decatur ReviewDecatur1917–1919
The Argenta RegisterArgenta1917–1958
The Decatur Daily ReviewDecatur1919–1980
The Macon County TimesWarrensburg1930–1999
Community CitizenWarrensburg1931–1939
The Decatur Review-AdvertiserDecatur1931–1999
Maroa SentinelMaroa1938–1999
The Graphic IndicatorDecatur1940–1999
Decatur TribuneDecatur1968–1980
AlternativeDecatur1969–1999
Decatur Spot-LightDecatur1970–?
Golden Prairie NewsAssumption, Macon, Moweaqua1977–?
Decatur Tribune WeeklyDecatur1980–?
The Decatur Herald & ReviewDecatur1980–1980
The Evening Decatur Herald & ReviewDecatur1980–1980
The Evening Herald & ReviewDecatur1980–1982
The Herald & ReviewDecatur1982–1988
The Decatur Herald & ReviewDecatur1988–1989
Herald & ReviewDecatur1989–?
African-American VoiceDecatur1993–?
African-American VoiceDecatur1993–?
The Macon NewsMacon?–
The Macon RecordMacon?–

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

11 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Decatur Downtown Historic DistrictDecaturDistrict1985
Decatur Historic DistrictDecaturDistrict1976
Garfield SchoolDecaturBuilding2024
Millikin, James, HouseDecaturBuilding1974
Roosevelt Junior High SchoolDecaturBuilding2002
Transfer HouseDecaturBuilding2002
Trobaugh-Good HouseDecaturBuilding1996
Ulery, Eli, HouseMount ZionBuilding1979
Union ChurchOreanaBuilding1999
Wabash Railroad Station and Railway Express AgencyDecaturBuilding1994
West End Historic DistrictDecaturDistrict2002

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Macon was formed in 1829 (1829-01-19) from unknown / original county.

MACON created from Non-County Area 7 attached to SHELBY.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

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

131k66k1,12218301840188019201930196020002020
183018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
1,1223,03913,73830,66544,00365,17584,69398,853118,257131,375114,706103,998

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

55 cemeteries and 1 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 55 of 55 listed
NameLatLon
Abrams CemeteryNoneNone
Bethel Cemetery39.72433-89.09825
Boiling Springs Cemetery39.88404-88.99812
Brown Cemetery39.79505-89.07993
Brown CemeteryNoneNone
Calvary Cemetery39.8445-88.97629
Chandler Cemetery40.05059-88.76368
Cross Cemetery39.9006-88.82696
Crum Cemetery39.82683-89.06649
Drake CemeteryNoneNone
Dunbar CemeteryNoneNone
Emery Cemetery40.03053-89.12307
Fairlawn Cemetery39.84888-88.98551
Florey Cemetery39.81097-88.83189
Frantz Cemetz CemeteryNoneNone
Friends Creek Cemetery39.9923-88.80242
Garver Cemetery39.90097-88.87487
Graceland Cemetery39.86162-88.976
Greenwood Cemetery39.83236-88.95754
Hall Cemetery39.73121-89.13355
Harristown Cemetery39.84477-89.08611
Hays Family CemeteryNoneNone
Hudelson Cemetery39.79632-89.06394
Illini Cemetery39.90921-89.08731
Long Cemetery40.02605-88.78404
Long Grove Cemetery39.65874-88.93946
Long Point Cemetery39.82895-89.1723
Macon County Memorial Park39.84398-89.05367
Macon County Poor Farm CemeteryNoneNone
Maroa Township Cemetery40.0388-88.94312
Mount Gilead Cemetery39.78931-88.95076
Mount Zion Cemetery39.77658-88.87722
Mount Zion Presbyterian Cemetery39.77112-88.87542
Muirheid Cemetery39.79635-89.0855
North Fork Cemetery39.84638-88.87379
Peck Cemetery39.92632-88.76701
Pleasant View Cemetery39.67757-89.12241
Pleasant View CemeteryNoneNone
Point Pleasant Cemetery39.80543-88.82689
Pope Cemetery39.74082-89.12255
Ridge Cemetery39.83631-88.78263
Ritchie Cemetery39.88423-88.84177
Saint Johns Lutheran Cemetery39.86387-88.8968
Salem Cemetery39.79799-89.01736
Sharon Cemetery39.84309-89.0223
South Macon Township Cemetery39.71373-89.00483
Spangler Cemetery39.8508-88.89873
Turpin CemeteryNoneNone
Turpin CemeteryNoneNone
Union Cemetery39.92024-88.84883
Walnut Grove Cemetery39.80348-88.98181
Wheeler Cemetery39.88356-88.85796
Whitley Cemetery39.8045-89.10118
Wrights Grove Cemetery40.03645-89.02219
Zion Cemetery39.75794-89.05684
Historical populated places — 1 of 1
NameLatLon
Faries Park39.87143-88.87702

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 Macon County, Illinois

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