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Community of Heyworth History
McLean County, Illinois

(Transcribed by: Teri Moncelle Colglazier)

The village of Heyworth [Randolph Township] was laid out by Campbell Wakefield in 1858 and incorporated in 1869. The town has become one of the best in the county, with paved streets, many business houses, excellent schools, churches and lodges. It has one newspaper, The Star, and a post of the American Legion. ["Official souvenir program, McLean County Centennial, Aug. 27, 28, 30, 1930" by: McLean County Illinois Centennial Souvenir Program Committee, Harold Lang and Eugene Funk] Principal shipping point for the grain, stock, poultry and dairy farms in the south end of the county, the incorporated village of Heyworth today has a population of 1,072. It is situated on the Illinois Central and the Illinois Terminal railroads and on US 51. The village contains numerous retail stores, automobile and other service establishments, a postoffice, banking facilities and several tall grain elevators. Heyworth was founded in 1856 by Campbell Wakefield, early settler of the area. It was named after an English director of the Illinois Central Railroad, which had been built one year before the village was platted. Today, Heyworth is the principal community of Randolph Township, which has a total population of 2,022. First to settle in the township was Gardner Randolph, a second cousin of John Randolph of Roanoke. He came in 1823. [This is McLean County, Illinois by: John Drury, The Loree Co., Chicago, Illinois (1955)]

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