County Past
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Mercer County, Illinois

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

19newspaper titles
0digitized titles
12historic places
1800earliest paper
1825formed
15,699pop. 2020
69cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory lists 19 newspaper titles published in Mercer 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 12 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1982. Most listings are in or near New Boston, Aledo, Keithsburg.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers published in Mercer

Library of Congress
19 newspaper titles
TitlePlaceYears
Daily Times RecordAledo1800–1999
The Democratic BannerAledo1800–1899
Mercer County AdvertiserNew Boston1849–1899
The Golden AgeNew Boston1852–1899
Keithsburg ObserverKeithsburg1856–1858
The Aledo Weekly RecordAledo1857–1894
Keithsburg ObserverKeithsburg1861–1899
The Mercer County PressAledo1866–1899
The Aledo BannerAledo1870–1881
The Keithsburg KeranaKeithsburg1872–?
The Keithsburg NewsKeithsburg1874–1968
The Aledo Weekly NewsAledo1879–1999
Democratic PressAledo1880–?
The Aledo DemocratAledo1880–1927
The Keithsburg TimesKeithsburg1884–1899
The Daily TimesAledo1891–1893
The Aledo PressAledo1894–1896
The Matherville NewsMatherville1910–1999
The Aledo DemocratAledo?–

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

12 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Commercial HouseKeithsburgBuilding1983
Downtown Aledo Historic DistrictAledoDistrict2016
Ives, Gideon, HouseNew BostonBuilding2000
Keithsburg Historic DistrictKeithsburgDistrict1986
Lock and Dam No. 17 Historic DistrictNew BostonDistrict2004
Mercer County CourthouseAledoBuilding1982
Mercer County FairgroundsAledoDistrict1997
Mercer County JailAledoBuilding1997
Sherrard Banking CompanySherrardBuilding1996
Thompson, James S., HouseNew BostonBuilding2002
VerduretteNew BostonDistrict2021
Willits, Levi, HouseNew BostonBuilding1995

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Mercer was formed in 1825 (1825-01-13) from unknown / original county.

MERCER created from Non-County Area 3 attached to PIKE; MERCER was divided into two parts.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

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

21k10k2618301840188019201930196020002020
183018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
262,35215,04219,50220,94518,80017,70117,37417,14919,28616,95715,699

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

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

Cemeteries — 69 of 69 listed
NameLatLon
Aledo Cemetery41.19475-90.74304
Alexis CemeteryNoneNone
Artz Cemetery41.23511-90.72444
Brick Cemetery41.18241-90.84956
Bridger Cemetery41.1522-90.5762
Brown CemeteryNoneNone
Brownlee Cemetery41.07542-90.66703
Brushwood Cemetery41.31931-90.44934
Buffalo Prairie Latter Day Saints Cemetery41.29533-90.87037
Cable Village Cemetery41.27901-90.50359
Calvary Cemetery41.204-90.43703
Candor Cemetery41.13527-90.77918
Carnahan Cemetery41.20447-90.65485
Cooper Cemetery41.16771-90.54175
Corns Cemetery41.2677-90.6728
Davis Cemetery41.16791-90.90882
Duncan Cemetery41.28697-90.85097
Eliza Creek Cemetery41.27739-90.99802
Farlows Grove Cemetery41.25364-90.6004
Fender-Chapel CemeteryNoneNone
Friends Cemetery41.31755-90.52624
German Cemetery41.30166-90.53105
Glancey Cemetery41.30987-91.0061
Graham Cemetery41.20513-90.64378
Gray Cemetery41.29975-90.70902
Griffith Cemetery41.20892-90.8443
Hamlet Cemetery41.31197-90.74402
Hawkins Cemetery41.06978-90.84767
Hopewell Cemetery41.19253-90.50429
Jackson CemeteryNoneNone
Keithsburg Cemetery41.09984-90.91949
Kiddoo CemeteryNoneNone
Latter Day Saint CemeteryNoneNone
Leech Cemetery41.31765-90.90333
Littlefield CemeteryNoneNone
Lutheran CemeteryNoneNone
Main CemeteryNoneNone
Mann Cemetery41.14142-90.52985
Mannon Cemetery41.23755-90.95416
Martin CemeteryNoneNone
Mathews CemeteryNoneNone
McClintock CemeteryNoneNone
Mcclure Cemetery41.0921-90.81462
Mcclure Cemetery41.14251-90.73499
Mcpherren Cemetery41.14885-90.72595
Merryman Cemetery41.25114-90.49596
Miller Cemetery41.31808-90.98236
Millersburg CemeteryNoneNone
Mills CemeteryNoneNone
Mount Vernon Cemetery41.07811-90.46727
New Boston Cemetery41.16103-90.98781
New Windsor Cemetery41.21039-90.44213
North Henderson CemeteryNoneNone
Norwood CemeteryNoneNone
Oak Ridge Cemetery41.2457-90.82385
Peniel Cemetery41.18609-90.85099
Preemption Cemetery41.31995-90.58034
Presbyterian CemeteryNoneNone
Quaker Cemetery41.32058-90.51281
Saint John's Cemetery41.21447-90.58735
Saint Joseph's Cemetery41.26213-90.64945
Saint Mary's Cemetery41.09974-90.91712
Saint Mary's CemeteryNoneNone
Sherrard Cemetery41.31975-90.51279
Shields Cemetery41.24506-90.97537
Sugar Grove Cemetery41.23947-90.73263
Sunbeam CemeteryNoneNone
Viola Cemetery41.2112-90.59088
Western Cemetery41.27996-90.45536
Historical populated places — 1 of 1
NameLatLon
Martin41.14726-90.63708

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 Mercer County, Illinois

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