Do you know of Howardsville ???

This page is an orphan - a placeholder until we can discover more about Howardsville. When we encounter a name that is new to us, we add it to our Gazetteer with the hope that we'll discover more information in the future. Such is the case with Howardsville.

Our sources for Howardsville (see Mentions and References below) indicate that it was a community with a post office by the same name. Unfortunately our sources aren't clear about the location of Howardsville other than they indicate that Howardsville would be found somewhere in Stephenson County, Illinois.

From the Blevins / Hellbock List: The post office opened in 1843 and closed in 1900.

This entry could have originated in error. It might be that a source had a misprint, was simply wrong or we made a transcription error while referencing it. Many of the documents we reference are from the 1800s and the early 1900s, with some easier to read than others.

Part of the difficulty in identifying whether a name is a post office or a community lies with how Post Offices were named. We've prepared an article with our understanding of how post offices were named: Naming of Post Offices.

Communities Also Named Howardsville ...

We found seven communities that share the name Howardsville.

Within Illinois, the name Howardsville is unique.

Beyond Illinois, we know of another seven communities that are located throughout in the United States.

Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Colorado
  - San Juan County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Colorado community of Howardsville [San Juan County].
- Maryland
  - Baltimore County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Maryland community of Howardsville [Baltimore County].
- Michigan
  - Saint Joseph County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Michigan community of Howardsville [Saint Joseph County].
- New Jersey
  - Ocean County
  - Please visit our profile page for the New Jersey community of Howardsville [Ocean County].
- New York
  - Oswego County
  - We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the New York community of Howardsville [Oswego County].
- Virginia
  - Albemarle County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Virginia community of Howardsville [Albemarle County].
  - Loudoun County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Virginia community of Howardsville [Loudoun County].

Miscellaneous References and Mentions for Howardsville ...

We've created the following list to keep track of the sources that proved useful in adding to our knowledge about Howardsville:

Found in a comprehensive list of Post Offices that was created by Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<2>

Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895)
Published by Rand McNally & Co.

A note taken from the Shipper's Guide for Howardsville - Services available: had a Post Office, no Railroad mentioned

Table of U.S. Post Offices in the United States (Jan. 1851)
Published by W. & J.C. Greer, Printers

U.S. Post Offices (Oct. 1846)
Published by John T. Towers

More Orphans in Stephenson County ...

Can you help?

As we explained above, when we encounter a name that might be a community or a post office we add it to our Gazetteer. If we have little information to go with the name, we call them Orphans. Below are Orphans that we believe to be located in Stephenson County.

Buckeye
	Legal
Cockrell
	Nevada
Dunbar
Duncanon	Rock Run

East Junction	Silver Creek
Everts	Stevens

Florence Station	Wadham
Fountain Creek

Footnotes ...

<1>

If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Howardsville could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.

<2>

A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/