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History · Delphos

Delphos’ post office opened in 1880, and 50% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1940 on and the census since 1930.

1880first post office
0on the National Register
50%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Delphos began

When was Delphos founded?

1880

The Delphos post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Borneo (1880), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 79 in 19302020 census: 26146 years
Founding year: the first Delphos post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Delphos’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Delphos are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Delphos’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Delphos’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Delphos came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Delphos.

Read it all →

Delphos was founded in 1880 as Borneo on the Leon, Mount Ayr and Southwestern Railroad. The community had rail service until 1945 and a post office from its inception until 1993. The community was the only incorporated town in Ringgold County to not have a bank, athough it once had stores, a blacksmith shop, and a hotel. Only a few homes comprise the town, with a few desacralized churches still standing as of 2022.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Delphos, 1880 to 1940

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1880Post officeThe Borneo post office opens
  3. 1880Post officeThe Borneo post office closes
  4. 1880Post officeThe Delphos post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1940On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Delphos, decade by decade

Today4 recent
DelphosIowaPopPlot20202021DelphosIowaPopPlot2020DelphosIowaPopPlot2021DelphosIowaPopPlotDelphos, IA2019Delphos, IAIAMap-doton-Delphos2004IAMap-doton-Delphos
On the map

Delphos on the map, 1940 to 1981

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Delphos. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Delphos on the 1940 USGS mapDelphos on the 1981 USGS map1940Blockton sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Delphos.

People over time

Delphos, census by census

010019401960198020002020Peak: 90

Between 23 and 90 people in every census since 1930.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Delphos’ Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Delphos’s post office has been open since 1880. Another post office, Borneo, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Borneo
1880–1880
Delphos
1880–today
18801950today
Gone or out of use
Delphoslocale

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Delphos’ history

What year was Delphos founded?

The Delphos post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.