Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 34% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: old-book passages.
The Farley post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1879. Another post office, Alma (1855), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 34% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Farley is more historic than 34% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
Iowa towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Iowa town has 9.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Farley’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (17% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
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 Farley’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Farley.
Farley got its start in the 1850s, following construction of the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad through that territory. Farley was named for the superintendent of the Sioux City Railroad.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Farley, cut from the printed page as they were published.
present post office. This finished, he returned to Illinois, where after remaining until the fall of 1852, he retraced his steps to the farm with his family, and ■settled down to creating out of the wilderness the beginning of what has since become the active interior town of Farley. In 1856, the building of the Dubuque & Sioux City road was in progress, and, the Dubuque & South-Western being organized, land companies were formed to buy up such parcels of property as would be contiguous to the routes of either corporation. Farley, it was thought, would become an availa-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Farley Creamery, an original enterprise, for the manufacture of butter on a large scale, was established at Farley by A. C. Walker & Co., on the 24th day of June, 1878. The process is something as follows : The milk is deposited in one of Clark’s reversible milk-pans, of which there are thirteen in the establishment, with a capacity of 1,000 pounds each, where it is left forty-eight hours in winter and thirty-six hours during the summer. The cream is then skimmed and thrown into a revolving churn and churned by machinery, the box containing the cream being revolved at the rate of fifty revolutions a minute. After
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, and the following few years was associated with J(jhn T. Hancock in the wholesale grocery businesSi In March, 1899, he came to Farley and embarked in mercantile pursuits, at which he has since been engaged. Upon the organization of the Farley State Bank in 1906. Mr. Sanner was elected its president and has since officiated in that capacity.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Charles W. Connell is one of the best known stock-raisers and farmers in Dubuque county. He was reared to farm life, received a practical education in youth and at the age of twenty-four years was employed bv the government carrying the mail between Farley and Cascade. After two years he opened a buffet in Farley which, in addition to his other enterprises, he has since operated. In 1902 he became the owner of 358 acres of land in Dubuque county which he has brought to a high state of improvement. He devotes a great
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.
Farley’s post office has been open since 1857. Another post office, Alma, 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).
The Farley post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1879.
Farley is more historic than 34% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
17% of Farley’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.1 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1978.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), 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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