Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1956 on and the census since 1880.
The Crescent post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Ellisdale (1856) and Crescent City (1857), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
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 Crescent’s history is told.
Crescent’s post office has been open since 1883. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia’s history of Crescent.
Crescent was originally laid out by Joseph E. Johnson, a Latter-day Saint who also published a paper there in the 1850s. Before the near universal exodus of the Mormons to Utah in 1852, (many left beginning in 1847, but they were the majority of the population until 1852) the area was known as Brownell's Grove and Farmersville.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Crescent, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Crescent was laid out, platted, the streets named, a newspaper started called the Crescent City Oracle. It was quite ably edited by Joseph E. Johnson.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Shortly after, Dan Carpenter, a practical printer, purchased an interest and for a time was run by them. During 1856 L. W. Babbitt bought out this firm, but Johnson continued to edit the paper until 1857, when he transferred his activities to the rising town of Crescent and started a paper there called the Oracle. This left L. W. Babbitt in full control of the paper, which was issued as a daily after '63.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Tlie township of Crescent was organized on March 2, 1857, and the first election was held on the 19th of June following, when 109 votes were polled. The Mormons originally settled this township. In 1848, immediately south of the bottom land skirting Pigeon Creek Valley, in Township 76, Range 44, they erected a large tabernacle of logs, capable of holding 500 per-
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Crescent. 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 Crescent.
Grew from 134 people in 1880 to 628 in 2020, 4 times over.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Crescent’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Crescent itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Crescent post office opened in 1883, 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 (5), Wikipedia, 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.
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