Trenton Corners is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Persifer Township, Knox County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. Trenton Corners is just west of the

Spoon River The Spoon River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 tributary of the Illinois River in west-central Illinois in the United States. The river drains larg ...

at the intersection of U.S. Highway 150 and Knox County Highway 15. There was formerly an early settlers' town called Trenton. The new Town of Trenton was surveyed on 30 July 1839 by George A. Charles, County Surveyor of Knox County, IL, for Hiram Bowman, Proprietor and a Minister of Gospel. It contained 160 acres, and was located in the NW Quarter, Section 25, Township 11N, Range 3E, 4th Principal Meridian, as granted by US Land Patent #14379 to Bowman on 3 November 1840. The small town consisted of 16 blocks divided into 113 lots, with 9 named streets, plus a public square.Deed Record #2591, Knox County IL Deeds 1836–1840, pp. 557-558, with location and survey plat https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C37H-HQHX-4?view=explore}} On 5 December 1839, Anselm Goodman, previously of Hart County, Kentucky and Lawrence County, IL, was appointed as its Postmaster, and on 16 December, he purchased eight of the 16 blocks, plus Lot 10 of Block 5, of the new town from Hiram Bowman. From 1839 to early 1850s, Bowman and Goodman sold lots to new residents. In 1842, Goodman and his wife Nancy sold Lot 5 in Block 4 for $1 to the Trustees of School District No. Three for new school. In 1888, the

Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Railroad classes, Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight tra ...

located north of the town. The businesses and the population of the town moved closer to the railroad into the new town of Dahinda, and Trenton ceased to be a place of importance. Several small businesses were still located in Trenton Corners until recently but none remain today. The Persifer Township hall and maintenance facility and the Trenton Cemetery are located near Trenton Corners.

References

Unincorporated communities in Knox County, Illinois Unincorporated communities in Illinois Galesburg, Illinois micropolitan area Populated places established in 1888 {{KnoxCountyIL-geo-stub