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1918 Map of Kirkland

Name: 1918 Topographic Map of Kirkland
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1941
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1941

About this map

The Kishwaukee River and its South Branch serve as the primary geographical anchors for this agricultural corridor in north-central Illinois. In the early twentieth century, this landscape was defined by an exceptionally dense network of rural infrastructure, visible in the dozens of named country schoolhouses such as Flora Center School and Charter Oak School that served the farmsteads of Flora and Spring townships.

The railway network was the lifeblood of settlements like Kirkland, Fairdale, and Cherry Valley, with the Chicago Milwaukee and St Paul and the Illinois Central Railroad facilitating the transport of goods across the prairie. Genealogists will find particular value in the identification of family-named landmarks and burial grounds, including the Bloods Point Cemetery and Shattucks Grove Cemetery, located near the junction of several historic overland routes and early property boundaries.