Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1913 on, and the census since 1870.
The Blairstown post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name.
Blairstown was named for its proprietor and railroad magnate, John Insley Blair who also founded Belle Plaine.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Blairstown’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Blairstown.
Blairstown was surveyed in the spring of 1862 by George F. Kirby who also surveyed Belle Plaine. It was platted and the plat filed for record on 12 May 1862, the same day as Belle Plaine. It was named for its proprietor and railroad magnate, John Insley Blair who also founded Belle Plaine.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Blairstown, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The station of Watkins is midway between Blairstown and Florence, and is located in the northwest quarter of Section 26, St. Clair Township. It was laid out in the Fall of 1873, and was named in honor of Supt. Watkins, who lost his life in a railway collision, in October of that year, about a mile east of here. An elevator was commenced as soon as the town Avas laid out.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Blairstown Indejyendent. — The Herald was th'e first paper established at Blairstown. The first number was issued about March 1, 1869, by W. H. Wheeler, the paper being printed, however, at the People's Journal office, at Vinton. It is remembered that Mr. Wheeler and the publisher of the Journal differed diametrically as to the propriety of sending ex-Gov. Stone to Congress in 1870, much space being occupied in the Herald by matter that Mr. Wheeler could not indorse. The Herald ran along about a year, when it was suspended
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1860s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Blairstown. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Blairstown.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1913Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Blairstown’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 488 and 713 people in every census since 1870.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Blairstown’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Blairstown post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2021
2019
2004