Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Godley, IL

Godley is a village that straddles the Will County and Grundy County line in northeastern Illinois, just outside Braidwood, and voters approved its incorporation at an election held on March 10, 1888.

Godley was a rough-and-tumble coal mining town in the Braidwood coal field, where the Chicago, Wilmington and Vermilion Coal Company operated the nearby K-Mine and M-Mine shafts.

According to the local history 'The Braidwood Story,' Godley in the 1880s had nearly 500 people but consisted of little more than a store, more than 18 taverns, and about eight houses of ill repute serving the miners.

When the area's mines gave out, Godley nearly vanished - its population fell from 296 in 1890 to just 60 people by the 1930 census, and the Godley mine itself closed in 1916.

Godley slowly rebuilt over the 20th century, and the 2020 census counted 566 residents, close to its modern peak of 601 in 2010.

The village celebrated its centennial in August 1988, the same period in which its board of trustees decided to build a new village hall.

Godley covers about 1.08 square miles, nearly all of it land, in the former coal country southwest of Joliet.