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Stephenson County, Illinois

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

46newspaper titles

0digitized titles

16historic places

1800earliest paper

1837formed

44,630pop. 2020

115cemeteries

—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory lists 46 newspaper titles published in Stephenson 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 16 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1974. Most listings are in or near Orangeville, Freeport, Eleroy.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers published in Stephenson

Library of Congress

46 newspaper titles

Title	Place	Years
Freeport Banner	Freeport	1800–1999
Freeport Republican	Freeport	1800–1883
Freeport Journal	Freeport	1848–1855
Deutscher Anzeiger	Freeport	1853–1917
Freeport Daily Bulletin	Freeport	1853–1899
Freeport Weekly Bulletin	Freeport	1853–1868
Freeport Weekly Journal	Freeport	1855–1866
Freeport Daily Journal	Freeport	1856–1869
Freeport Daily Journal	Freeport	1856–1869
The Freeport Wide Awake	Freeport	1860–1860
The Freeport News	Freeport	1864–1899
The Daily North-West	Freeport	1865–1866
Freeport Journal	Freeport	1866–1883
The Freeport Daily Journal	Freeport	1866–1867
Lena Star	Lena	1867–1910
Freeport Bulletin	Freeport	1868–1999
Freeport Budget	Freeport	1870–1883
The Davis Budget	Davis	1870–1899
The Davis Review	Davis	1870–1999
The Illinois Monitor	Freeport	1874–1899
Freeport Daily Bulletin	Freeport	1877–1919
Lena Daily Star	Lena	1877–1877
Freeport Daily Journal	Freeport	1879–1879
The Daily Journal	Freeport	1879–1889
The Lena Daily Star	Lena	1879–1899
Freeport Daily Journal	Freeport	1880–1880
The Daily Journal and Republican	Freeport	1880–1885
Freeport Journal and Republican	Freeport	1883–1885
Freeport Democrat	Freeport	1884–1894
The Daily Journal	Freeport	1885–1913
The Freeport Journal	Freeport	1885–1999
The Davis Sentinel	Davis	1886–1999
Camp Meeting Herald	Lena	1887–1887
The Daily Democrat	Freeport	1887–1904
The Daily Star and Freeport District Camp Meeting Herald	Lena	1887–1887
The Daily Star	Lena	1898–1898
Freeport Weekly Standard	Freeport	1900–1999
Freeport Democrat	Freeport	1904–1904
Freeport Evening Standard	Freeport	1904–1911
The Davis Leader	Davis	1910–1969
The Lena Weekly Star	Lena	1910–1933
The Freeport Daily Standard	Freeport	1911–1913
Freeport Journal-Standard	Freeport	1913–?
The Freeport Argus	Freeport	1914–?
The Lena Star	Lena	1934–1957
German Valley Bulletin	German Valley	1935–1969

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

11 of 16 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

16 listed properties

Property	City	Type	Listed
AF and AM Lodge 687, Orangeville	Orangeville	Building	2003
Addams, John H., Homestead	Cedarville	Building	1979
Bruce, James, Round Barn	Freeport	Building	1984
Central House	Orangeville	Building	1999
Fehr, Charles, Round Barn	Orangeville	Building	1984
Harbach, Gerald, Round Barn	Eleroy	Building	1984
Jensen, Chris, Round Barn	Lena	Building	1984
Kellogg's Grove	Kent	Site	1978
Lena Water Tower	Lena	Structure	1997
Otte, Dennis, Round Barn	Eleroy	Building	1984
People's State Bank	Orangeville	Building	2004
Ritzman, William, House	Orangeville	Building	2000
Soldiers' Monument	Freeport	Object	1998
Stephenson County Courthouse	Freeport	Building	1974
Taylor, Oscar, House	Freeport	Building	1984
Union House	Orangeville	Building	2000

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Stephenson was formed in 1837 (1837-03-04) from Jo Daviess, Winnebago.

STEPHENSON created from JO DAVIESS and WINNEBAGO.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

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

1840	1860	1880	1900	1920	1940	1950	1960	1980	2000	2020
2,800	25,112	31,963	34,933	37,743	40,646	41,595	46,207	49,536	48,979	44,630

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

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

Cemeteries — 80 of 115 listed

Name	Lat	Lon
Afolkey Cemetery	42.429	-89.5759
Babbs Grove Cemetery	42.27885	-89.77711
Baileyville Baptist Cemetery	None	None
Basswood Cemetery	42.46596	-89.73124
Bellview Cemetery	42.41667	-89.65261
Bethel Cemetery	None	None
Bethlehem Cemetery	42.44806	-89.45761
Blackhawk Monument Cemetery	None	None
Brick Church Cemetery	42.43566	-89.72835
Brubaker and Rowe Cemetery	None	None
Burns Branch Cemetery	None	None
Calvary Cemetery	42.29561	-89.65724
Cedarville Cemetery	42.3839	-89.64122
Cedarville School House Cemetery (historical)	None	None
Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens Cemetery	42.26393	-89.63341
Christian Hollow Cemetery	42.48644	-89.84915
County Home Cemetery	42.25905	-89.63099
Cranes Grove Cemetery	42.23757	-89.58975
Crossroads Cemetery	42.44445	-89.86706
Dakota Cemetery	42.38981	-89.53423
Davis Cemetery	42.42559	-89.40872
Diddens Cemetery	None	None
Dunkard Cemetery	None	None
Eilert Cemetery	None	None
Eldorado Cemetery	42.48306	-89.61372
Eleroy Cemetery	42.34118	-89.7589
Ellis Cemetery	42.25002	-89.71724
Evergreen Cemetery	None	None
Felts Cemetery	42.46917	-89.43094
Flansburg Cemetery	None	None
Frankeburger Cemetery	42.48917	-89.49261
Freeport City Cemetery	42.29251	-89.63539
Freeport Mennonite Cemetery	42.36036	-89.54546
Gallows Hill Cemetery	None	None
Grace Methodist Evangelical Cemetery	42.26782	-89.77301
Grandview Cemetery	42.34807	-89.63205
Grisby Cemetery	42.37167	-89.75983
Gund Cemetery	42.27973	-89.51957
Harlem Center Cemetery	42.34002	-89.69097
Hart Cemetery	42.27208	-89.71834
Hathaway Cemetery	None	None
Hawkins Cemetery	None	None
Hershey School Cemetery	None	None
Hickory Grove Cemetery	None	None
Highland Cemetery	42.27553	-89.82721
Holly Grove Cemetery	42.37511	-89.8782
Howardsille Cemetery	42.37667	-89.90428
Indian Burial Grounds	None	None
Irish Grove Cemetery	42.37978	-89.4075
Jerusalem Cemetery	None	None
Kent United Baptist Cemetery	42.32806	-89.904
Lancaster Cemetery	42.35991	-89.53413
Lane Evangelical United Baptist Cemetery	42.21399	-89.66016
Lena Burial Park Cemetery	42.37335	-89.82029
Lena Cemetery	42.37334	-89.81984
Liebhart Cemetery	42.27792	-89.75541
Louisa Cemetery	42.40084	-89.84873
Lutheran Cemetery	None	None
Manny Cemetery	42.41501	-89.75956
Martin Cemetery	42.32663	-89.70993
Mennonite Cemetery	None	None
Mennonite Cemetery	42.36056	-89.54511
Mount Carmel Evangelical United Baptist Cemetery	None	None
Mount Pleasant Cemetery	42.49059	-89.71487
Oakland Cemetery	42.28164	-89.66297
Old Zion Church Cemetery	None	None
Oneco Cemetery	42.49306	-89.669
Orangeville Cemetery	42.47167	-89.64456
Pearl City	None	None
Pioneers Cemetery	42.40166	-89.49543
Preston Cemetery	None	None
Reed and Thomas Milburn Cemetery	None	None
Rice School Cemetery	None	None
Richland Cemetery	42.40945	-89.689
Richland Center Cemetery	42.40965	-89.6892
Richland Salem Lutheran Cemetery	42.42488	-89.70672
Ridgeway Cemetery	None	None
Ridott Center Cemetery	42.2764	-89.46594
Ridott Christian Reformed Cemetery	42.23086	-89.45402
Ridott Christian Reformed Cemetery	42.23086	-89.45402

Historical populated places — 1 of 1

Name	Lat	Lon
Valley Creek	42.25891	-89.54261

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 Stephenson County, Illinois

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