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Xenia Township is one of 12 townships making up Clay County in Illinois. Its major settlement is the village of Xenia.
The village center has actually shifted since it was first laid out in 1834. It moved southward from the old State road once the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railway arrived in 1854. Businesses were established on Front Street but many stores were gutted by a fire in 1903 and had to be rebuilt. The former center near the old State road is now known as Upper Town.
By 1880 the population of the township had grown to over 1,400 but by 2010 it had fallen to 658. Xenia held its sesqui-centennial celebrations in August 1984. It is also famed for its Annual ‘Fish Fry’ celebrations.
There also used to be an Xenia in Logan County, Illinois but it was renamed Atlanta in 1855 when it was discovered Xenia in Clay County had prior claim to the name.
