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1953 Map of Aledo West

Name: 1953 Topographic Map of Aledo West
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1958
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1958

About this map

Aledo serves as the eastern anchor of this mid-century survey, revealing a town defined by its institutions, from the Roosevelt Military Academy and Mercer County Hospital to the Aledo Grammar School. The Chicago Burlington and Quincy railroad cuts a straight horizontal line across the center of the sheet, connecting the regional hub of Aledo with the smaller western settlement of Joy.

The rural landscape between these towns is organized into townships like Millersburg and Abington, where the terrain is deeply dissected by the winding courses of the Edwards River and Pope Creek. This agrarian grid is dotted with essential local landmarks for genealogists, including numerous family and community burial grounds such as Oak Ridge Cemetery and Brick Cemetery. The presence of several distinct houses of worship, including Peniel Church and the Seventh Day Adventist Church, illustrates the tight-knit social structure of the Illinois prairie during the 1950s.