Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1971 on and the census since 1910.
The Brandon post office opened in 1854, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Brandon’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Brandon yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Brandon is a city in Buchanan County, Iowa, United States. The population was 341 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1854. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 309 to 341 (+10%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Brandon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Jacob Fouts built a saw-mill at Brandon on Lime creek in 1854, which remained standing for some twenty years, when the business not proving remunerative the building was taken down.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Buchanan county, and located near Brandon. His education was received in the Brandon schools, and his occupation has been that of farming. In 1868 he bought an eighty-acre farm which, after working for a time, he sold and bought three forties, which he sold about five years ago and engaged in blacksmithing. About one year ago he bought a stock of hardware of J. M. Romig, and is now engaged in that business. On July 4, 1865, he
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.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Brandon.
1971Brandon sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Brandon.
Between 200 and 432 people in every census since 1910.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Brandon’s Wikipedia page.
The Brandon post office opened in 1854, 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), 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 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
2016
2009
2004