The village of Kingston was founded in 1875 when the Chicago & Pacific railroad laid tracks through the township and built a depot on section 22 on a farm belonging to Lyman Stuart, an early settler of Kingston township.

Lyman and his brother, James Stuart paid to have the Pleasant Hill church moved to the new site from its original location on Baseline road south of the new village.

The first major fire in the village occurred in January 1886 when several frame buildings were engulfed on the east side of Main street.

A farmer, John Uplinger agreed to build a block of brick on the burned site if the citizens would vote to incorporate.

Frank continued this line until 1921 when he sold to the newly formed Kingston Farmers Cooperative.

Frank's brother, John H. Uplinger operated a hardware store and sold farm implements and also served as postmaster.

The citizens voted for a public school house in 1879 which was opened in 1881 and was destroyed by fire in 1895.

Some of the businesses mentioned above were destroyed in the fire of 1908, which engulfed a large part of town on the west side of Main Street.

Kingston is served by the Genoa-Kingston Community Unit School District with nearby Genoa.