A Village That Moved Itself for the Railroad
St. Joseph didn't start where it sits today: the original 1849 settlement, known as Kelly's Ford after innkeeper Joseph Kelly, sat a mile and a half south near the Salt Fork River. When the Danville-Urbana-Bloomington-Pekin Railroad was routed through in 1867, the entire village relocated north to its present site by 1870, and organized formally in 1881.
Building on a Site Chosen for a Railroad, Not a River
Unlike a settlement that grew up gradually around a water source, St. Joseph's current footprint was chosen for rail access, which means the soil under its oldest lots was graded for a townsite rather than shaped by a river over time. That distinction matters when tracing why an older St. Joseph foundation is settling where it is.