Glasford, IL

Glasford began with a railroad station placed near Samuel Alexander Glasford's Timber Township farm. Glasford arrived in Peoria County from Ohio in 1842, bought the station site, and laid out the town on December 9, 1868. The place first went by Glascoe, then settled into Glasford as the railroad brought stores, settlers, and trade to the new village. Illinois records show the village's formal incorporation in 1889, while local history traces its civic story back to the 1868 town plat.

ATTRNatFee / CC BY-SA 4.0

The village still carries that rail-and-school identity. Illini Bluffs Elementary, Middle, and High School serve the area, and the Glasford Village Board keeps local government centered in the community. The town sits near the Glasford Disturbance, a buried geological feature thought to be an ancient meteorite crater, where bedrock was fractured and upended before glacial deposits covered the evidence. That gives Glasford two deep foundations: a human one laid by a station and a town founder, and a geological one hidden beneath the fields. It is a Peoria County village with a railroad name and an unusual story underfoot.