A history of Cherry Valley,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Cherry Valley from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Official documents from the Winnebago County Clerk's office and the Village of Cherry Valley state Cherry Valley was settled in 1836. The first settler within Cherry Valley was Joseph Griggs who, along with his family, settled on the north bank of the Kishwaukee River in 1835. Cherry Valley was incorporated as a village on January 31, 1857. Early landmark events for Cherry Valley was the establishment of a mill on the Kishwaukee River, and the coming of the railroad in 1852.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Cherry Valley’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewNORTH ELEVATION - Hale House, Sta…, 1933: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Cherry Valley, decade by decade
1960s
1990s
Nothing in Cherry Valley is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Cherry Valley has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Rockford Woman’s Club in Rockford, 3 miles away.
Cherry Valley and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as NORTH ELEVATION - Hale House, State Route 5 (1933) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.