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Mason County, Illinois

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

34newspaper titles

0digitized titles

4historic places

1800earliest paper

1841formed

13,086pop. 2020

84cemeteries

—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory lists 34 newspaper titles published in Mason 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 4 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1978. Most listings are in or near Havana, Manito.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers published in Mason

Library of Congress

34 newspaper titles

Title	Place	Years
Manito Community Press	Pleasant Plains, Green Valley, San Jose	1800–1999
The Havana Press	Havana	1800–1999
The Havana Republican	Havana	1800–?
The Havana Volunteer	Havana	1800–1999
The Manito Express	Manito	1800–1929
The Mason County Record	San Jose, San Jose	1800–?
Mason Herald	Havana	1850–1859
Havana Times	Havana	1852–1852
The Mason County Herald	Havana	1853–1859
The Democratic True Unionist	Havana	1860–1870
The Havana Post	Havana	1861–1999
The Havana Voter	Havana	1864–1869
The Mason City Times	Mason City	1866–1999
The Mason City News	Mason City	1867–1879
Mason City Independent	Mason City	1870–1899
The Democratic Clarion	Havana	1870–1877
The Mason County Democrat	Havana	1870–?
Mason City Journal	Mason City	1871–1999
The Havana Reveille	Havana	1871–1871
Mason County Republican	Havana	1873–1999
The Democratic Bugle	Havana	1876–1999
Mason County Herald	Mason City	1888–1999
The Mason City Times	Mason City	1890–1999
The Express	Manito	1891–1999
Easton Enterprise	Easton	1900–1999
Mason City Banner Times	Mason City	1900–?
The Enterprise	Easton	1900–1925
The Havana Shopper News	Havana	1900–1999
The Kilbourne Independent	Kilbourne	1902–1903
The Manito Community Express	Manito	1920–1962
The Easton Enterprise	Easton	1925–?
The Havana Herald	Havana	1935–1999
Manito Review	Manito	1967–?
Mason City Banner	Mason City	?–

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

2 of 4 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

4 listed properties

Property	City	Type	Listed
Clear Lake Site	Manito	Site	1978
Havana Public Library	Havana	Building	1994
Havana Water Tower	Havana	Structure	1993
Rockwell Mound	Havana	Site	1987

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Mason was formed in 1841 (1841-01-20) from Menard, Tazewell.

MASON created from MENARD and TAZEWELL.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Mason County population from 1850 to 2020 (Census historical series).

1850	1860	1880	1900	1920	1940	1950	1960	1980	2000	2020
5,921	10,931	16,242	17,491	16,634	15,358	15,326	15,193	19,492	16,038	13,086

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

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

Cemeteries — 80 of 84 listed

Name	Lat	Lon
Allens Grove Cemetery	40.28559	-89.67841
Ashurst-Friend Cemetery	None	None
Baker Cemetery	40.19588	-89.94789
Bath Cemetery	40.18739	-90.1483
Baxter Cemetery	None	None
Bethel Baptist Cemetery	40.10803	-90.1273
Big Grove Cemetery	40.14634	-89.76126
Bowman-Cooper-Keith Cemetery	None	None
Carter Cemetery	40.16808	-89.92631
Chaney Cemetery	40.2293	-89.95892
Cherry Grove Cemetery	40.23199	-89.65677
Coon Grove Cemetery	40.40471	-89.81097
County Poor Farm Cemetery	None	None
Crites Cemetery	40.18396	-89.75458
Danville Cemetery	None	None
Deverman Cemetery	None	None
Dierker Cemetery	None	None
Easton Cemetery	40.21797	-89.85485
Eckard Cemetery	None	None
Fairview Cemetery	None	None
Finch Cemetery	None	None
Forest City Cemetery	None	None
Fosket Cemetery	None	None
Fredlander Cemetery	None	None
Fullerton Cemetery	40.30357	-90.05705
Hancock Cemetery	40.27501	-90.07594
Heater Cemetery	40.27698	-89.9045
Heston Cemetery	40.28226	-89.95365
Heyl Cemetery	40.35349	-89.73504
Holstlaw Cemetery	40.164	-89.931
Horstman Cemetery	None	None
Hoyt-Parker Cemetery	None	None
Jones Cemetery	40.18921	-90.00567
Kilbourne Cemetery	40.1481	-90.00778
Kilbourne Cemetery	40.14782	-90.00872
Kolb-Horstman Cemetery	None	None
Langston Cemetery	40.38653	-89.71661
Laurel Hill Cemetery	40.29595	-90.0357
Leases Grove Cemetery	40.21571	-89.8054
Leveldale Cemetery	40.23562	-89.80886
Lewis Cemetery	None	None
Lydia Baldwin Cemetery	None	None
Martin Cemetery	None	None
Mason City Cemetery	40.20273	-89.67538
Matanzas Cemetery	None	None
Meadow Lawn Cemetery	40.42127	-89.7721
Melton Cemetery	None	None
Minturn Cemetery	None	None
Montgomery Cemetery	None	None
Morgan Cemetery	40.17492	-89.94266
Moslander Cemetery	None	None
Mount Carmel Cemetery	None	None
Mount Zion Cemetery	40.13702	-90.06945
Mount Zion Cemetery	40.13698	-90.06928
Neilkirk Cemetery	None	None
Neteler Cemetery	40.28125	-90.06563
New Hope Cemetery	40.2058	-89.85689
New Lebanon Cemetery	None	None
New Lebanon Cemetery	40.1846	-89.93927
Oak Grove Cemetery	40.42903	-89.78122
Patterson Cemetery	None	None
Paul-Scovil-Cross Cemetery	None	None
Pleasant Hill Cemetery	40.33282	-89.81335
Pratt Cemetery	40.13012	-90.01482
Quiver Presbyterian Cemetery	40.34921	-89.96789
Rakestraw Cemetery	40.3541	-89.9963
Roat Cemetery	40.29693	-89.99883
Saint Charles Cemetery	40.28037	-90.06569
Saint Fredricks Cemetery	40.42726	-89.78438
Saint John's Luthern Cemetery	None	None
Saint Johns Cemetery	40.21211	-90.08829
Samms Cemetery	40.25168	-89.94476
Sears Cemetery	40.17959	-89.90146
Sisson Cemetery	None	None
Snicarte Cemetery	40.11984	-90.22015
Speckman Cemetery	40.26441	-90.08117
Steging Cemetery	40.27018	-89.98978
Susan Conover Cemetery	None	None
Swing Grove Cemetery	40.16456	-89.65372
Tracy Cemetery	None	None

Historical populated places — 1 of 1

Name	Lat	Lon
Moscow	40.16421	-90.16401

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 Mason County, Illinois

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