The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Ellsworth was laid out on December 6, 1871, by Jonathan H. Cheney (1833–1920), Almon Brigham Ives (1816–1887), and Oliver Ellsworth, whom the town was named after. Cheney was one of three sons of early McLean County settler Jonathan Cheney active in promoting the Lafayette Bloomington and Mississippi Railroad; when his brother, Haines Cheney, was in the Illinois Senate he had helped to arrange the charter of the railroad. Almon B. Ives was a Bloomington lawyer specializing in land law; both Cheney and Ives were on the board of directors of the new railroad. In 1876 the railroad was leased to the Lake Erie and Western Railroad and in 1879 was incorporated into that road. Construction began on the railroad in 1869. The new townsite occupied 40 acres (16 ha) on each side of the tracks. The plan of Ellsworth was almost identical to that of its neighbor, Arrowsmith. A 200-foot (61 m) swath o…
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Ellsworth’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Ellsworth’s history is told.
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Ellsworth, decade by decade
2000
Nothing in Ellsworth is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Ellsworth has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Benjaminville Friends Meetinghouse and Burial Ground in Dawson, 5.1 miles away.
Ellsworth and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.