Hitesville, Illinois

City: Hitesville

County: Coles

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 39.500278, -88.043889

Hitesville was a village in Coles County, Illinois. Located east of Charleston and three and a half miles southeast of Ashmore, Hitesville was an old village that traced its origins to 1835. In April 1835, James Hite laid out the village, which was named after him. In August 1835, the U.S. Post Office Department established a post office in the village. At its peak of population, the village consisted of several houses and shops. Although it grew to a considerable size, Hitesville could not survive the construction of the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad; Ashmore and other villages that emerged swallowed up Hitesville. The Post Office Department dissolved and reestablished the post office several times until it permanently dissolved it in March 1857.

The History of Coles County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1879), 406; James N. Adams, comp., Illinois Place Names (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society, 1989), 393; Michael Kleen, Tales of Coles County, Illinois, 6th ed. (Woodbridge, VA: Lake Ridge Press, 2020), 183.