Appleton, Illinois is an unincorporated community within Persifer Township

Persifer Township, Knox County, Illinois

Persifer Township is one of twenty-one townships in Knox County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 960.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, Persifer Township covers an area of ; of this, is land and is water.-Unincorporated towns:* Appleton at *...

, Knox County

Knox County

There are nine counties named Knox County in the United States, All named for Brig. General Henry Knox who would later serve as the first Secretary of War:*Knox County, Illinois...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. Appleton lies a mile or so north of U.S. Highway 150 and Interstate 74

Interstate 74

Interstate 74 is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Its western end is at an intersection with Interstate 80 in Davenport, Iowa; the eastern end of its Midwest segment is at an intersection with Interstate 75 in Cincinnati, Ohio...

. Knox County Highway 12 runs from north to south through Appleton and the tracks of the BNSF Railway

BNSF Railway

The BNSF Railway is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. It is one of seven North American Class I railroads and the second largest freight railroad network in North America, second only to the Union Pacific Railroad, its primary...

 run east to west. Court Creek also runs through Appleton before it meets the Spoon River

Spoon River

The Spoon River is a tributary of the Illinois River in west-central Illinois in the United States. The river drains largely agricultural prairie country between Peoria and Galesburg...

 in Dahinda.

History

From the 1899 Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, W. Seldon Gale & Geo. Candee Gale published by Munsell Publishing Company, Publishers, Chicago & New York:

"Appleton was laid out by the Hon. J. H. Lewis in the spring of 1888, on the S.E. 1-4 of Section 16. It is situated on the north side of the Santa Fe R.R. and is a station on that road. Mr. Wm. A. Iles has a store and a grain elevator. There is also a blacksmith shop and a Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Quite a large amount of grain and stock is shipped from Appleton each year."

Today

The site of the original town today is empty except for several streets that served the town. Appleton formerly had a post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

, as well as many homes and businesses but was very prone to flooding. The size of the town shrank during much of the 20th century, and the final homes located in the original town were relocated to higher ground in the 1980s.

A volunteer fire department

Volunteer fire department

See also the Firefighter article and its respective sections regarding VFDs in other countries.A volunteer fire department is a fire department composed of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction.The first organized force of...

serves the Appleton area.