Cherry Valley Public Library District

The Cherry Valley Public Library District applied for and received a $5,000 grant in 2001 from the state library to scan and digitize photographs and other materials from its local history collection. The library owes a debt of gratitude to the Cherry Valley Bicentennial Committee, the forebearers of the present Cherry Valley Historical Society, who collected photographs, written histories, and oral stories from village and area residents more than a quarter century ago. The product of their efforts was the book, Cherry Valley: Our Memories are Warm.

Now, this aging collection of photographs and written memories can be accessed through the web by village residents, genealogists, researchers, and students of local history for the purpose of discovering the story of the village in the valley. The history of Cherry Valley in many ways typifies that of a small, mid-nineteenth century Illinois town. Its establishment in 1835, its mill on the Kishwaukee River, the coming of the railroad in 1852, its schools, businesses, civic organizations, and pioneer families – all these strands weave a fabric of heritage that provides the present foundation and civic character of Cherry Valley.

While the Cherry Valley records in the Illinois Digital Archive were recorded from information gathered 27 years ago, technological advances such as Hyper Text Markup Language and Optical Character Recognition render the information that you desire searchable by keyword. The library intends to continue to contribute more resources to this project, including cemetery records and color slides, as we seek to preserve the past for future generations. We invite you to consider sharing your family photographs, histories, and journals for inclusion in this 21st century database.