The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗First settled in 1829 on a site tentatively named "Washington", the town was officially founded in 1830 as the county seat of McDonough County and given the name "Macomb" after Alexander Macomb, a general in the War of 1812. War veterans were given land grants in the Macomb area, which was part of the "Military Tract" set aside by Congress. In 1855 the Northern Cross Railroad, a predecessor to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, was constructed through Macomb, leading to a rise in the town's population. On April 24, 1899, the Western Illinois State Normal School, currently Western Illinois University, was founded in Macomb. Representative Lawrence Sherman was instrumental in locating the school in Macomb. In 1903 the Macomb and Western Illinois Railway was built from Macomb to nearby Industry and Littleton by local financier Charles V. Chandler, though this railroad was abandon…
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Macomb’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewPreston Wallace Thomson, circa 18…, 1865: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Macomb
See all 22 →
Macomb, decade by decade
CommonsPreston Wallace Thomson, circa 1860s-18871865
DocumentNarcissa Latimer letter to Sarah Latimer, November 29, 18681868
DocumentNarcissa Latimer letter to Sarah Latimer, November 29, 18681868
DocumentNarcissa Latimer letter to Alexander Latimer, September 19,…1869
DocumentNarcissa Latimer letter to Alexander Latimer, September 19,…1869
1990s
Nothing in Macomb is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Macomb has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Western Illinois State Normal School Building in Macomb, 0.4 miles away.
Macomb 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 Preston Wallace Thomson, circa 1860s-1887 (1865) 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.