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Menard County, Illinois

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

10newspaper titles

0digitized titles

6historic places

1800earliest paper

1839formed

12,297pop. 2020

70cemeteries

—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory lists 10 newspaper titles published in Menard 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 6 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1972. Most listings are in or near Petersburg, Athens, Bobtown.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers published in Menard

Library of Congress

10 newspaper titles

Title	Place	Years
The Express	Tallula	1800–1897
Beardstown and Petersburg Gazette	Beardstown, Petersburg	1852–1859
Menard County Express	Petersburg	1854–1855
The Menard Index	Petersburg	1855–1999
The Menard Weekly Index	Petersburg	1855–1859
The Menard County Axis	Petersburg	1861–1868
Menard County Times	Petersburg	1873–1878
The Greenview Review	Greenview	1900–1970
The Menard County Review	Greenview	1971–?
Athens Free Press	Athens	?–

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

6 listed properties

Property	City	Type	Listed
Lincoln's New Salem Village	Petersburg	District	1972
North Sangamon United Presbyterian Church	Athens	Building	1979
Petersburg Historic District	Petersburg	District	1976
Petersburg Historic District (Boundary Increase)	Petersburg	Building	1986
Robinson-Bonnett Inn	Bobtown	Building	1990
Rogers, Col. Matthew, Building	Athens	Building	2005

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Menard was formed in 1839 (1839-02-15) from Sangamon.

MENARD created from SANGAMON.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

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

1840	1860	1880	1900	1920	1940	1950	1960	1980	2000	2020
4,431	9,584	13,024	14,336	11,694	10,663	9,639	9,248	11,700	12,486	12,297

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

National Park Service sites nearby

NPS

Park units within about 40 km of the county centroid (from NPS Public POIs; no API key).

Site	Type	Dist.
LIHO	Park unit	28.0 km

Source: NPS National Datasets / Public POIs. The NPS Developer API requires a free key and was not used.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

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

Cemeteries — 70 of 70 listed

Name	Lat	Lon
Airland Cemetery	None	None
Alkire Cemetery	None	None
Atterberry Cemetery	40.03737	-89.92827
Ayers Cemetery	None	None
Baker Prairie Number 1 Cemetery	40.00647	-89.80479
Baker Prairie Number 2 Cemetery	40.00779	-89.81876
Bale Cemetery	None	None
Bee Grove Cemetery	None	None
Blane Cemetery	None	None
Calvary Cemetery	40.01366	-89.82783
Clary's Grove Cemetery	None	None
Claypool Cemetery	None	None
Codington Cemetery	None	None
Cogdal Cemetery	None	None
Colson Cemetery	None	None
Concord Cemetery	40.05496	-89.88155
Davenport Cemetery	None	None
Dunschen Cemetery	40.05338	-89.99456
Elijah Cemetery	None	None
Elmwood Cemetery	40.08345	-89.75016
Farmers Point Cemetery	39.9431	-89.84482
Godbey Cemetery	40.07715	-89.80789
Goldsby Cemetery	None	None
Gordon Cemetery	None	None
Greenwood Cemetery	39.95299	-89.96207
Hash Cemetery	40.01421	-89.92511
Henning Railroad Cemetery	None	None
Hickory Grove Cemetery	39.94837	-89.81653
Hornback Cemetery	40.0066	-89.77025
Hubly Graveyard	None	None
Indian Point Cemetery	40.00224	-89.71441
Irish Grove Cemetery	40.08317	-89.61429
Joel Hall Cemetery	39.95511	-89.72713
Kirby Cemetery	40.10282	-89.85271
Lebanon Cemetery	40.01117	-89.7524
Merrill Cemetery	None	None
Morgan Cemetery	None	None
Mullen Cemetery	None	None
O'Rourke Cemetery	None	None
Oakford Cemetery	None	None
Oakland Cemetery	40.00024	-89.85684
Oakridge Cemetery	None	None
Ogden Cemetery	None	None
Old Concord Cemetery	40.04051	-89.87857
Old West Cemetery	39.95948	-89.73201
Park Cemetery	40.03596	-89.87137
Primm Cemetery	None	None
Purkapile Cemetery	None	None
Rock Creek Cemetery	None	None
Rose Hill Cemetery	40.01226	-89.82935
Saint Peters Cemetery	40.00444	-89.84759
Schoeneweiss Cemetery	40.11908	-89.86608
Shipley Cemetery	40.08319	-89.87063
Slinker Cemetery	None	None
Smedly Cemetery	39.96309	-89.97098
Smith Cemetery	None	None
Smoot Cemetery	40.06361	-89.81031
Spears Burying Ground	None	None
Stith Cemetery	None	None
Sugar Grove Cemetery	40.04113	-89.68637
Tibbs Cemetery	None	None
Tice Cemetery	None	None
Tuner Cemetery	None	None
Walnut Ridge Cemetery	40.04807	-89.6107
Watkins Cemetery	40.07102	-89.94441
White Cemetery	39.95926	-89.93656
Williams Cemetery	None	None
Willson Cemetery	39.95372	-89.99282
Wiseman Cemetery	None	None
Woldridge Cemetery	None	None

Historical populated places — 1 of 1

Name	Lat	Lon
New Salem	39.97894	-89.844

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 Menard County, Illinois

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