Benson’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold just one old photo of Benson. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The village was established in 1874 with the construction of the Chicago, Pekin and Southwestern Railroad. The town was named after S.H. Benson of Streator, Illinois, the railroad's general freight manager. The grid layout of the town is aligned to the line of the former railroad, rather than the usual north-south orientation. A post office was established in 1873. East Friselanders, Plattdeutsch-speaking Lutherans, settled in the Benson area in 1858.
The Benson Water Tower was replaced with a modern water tower in the 1980s and has since been demolished.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Benson’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Benson’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewPlat book of Woodford County, Ill…, 1893: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Benson
See all 1 →Benson, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Benson is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Benson has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is El Paso Public Library in El Paso, 9.4 miles away.
Benson and the nearest listed places
Closest to Benson
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Plat book of Woodford County, Illinois (1893) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15From Wikimedia Commons (6) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.