The story
Read it all →How Manson came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Manson.
Manson was platted in 1872 on the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad line.
ChaptersTornado of June 28, 1979
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
C+History
History · Manson
Manson’s post office opened in 1871, and 24% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 42% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1979 on, and the census since 1880.
1871first post office
0on the National Register
24%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
1famous people
Quick answers
How Manson began
When was Manson founded?
1871
The Manson post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Yatesville (1866), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 377 in 18802020 census: 1,709155 years
How historic is Manson?
C+
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 42% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Manson post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Manson’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Manson is more historic than 42% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Manson’s overall grade.
Founding era1871, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 194024.2% of homes (±5.2) · typical IA town 21.6% · U.S. 8.4%A−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical IA town 9.1 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 42%
NewerOlder
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 Manson’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.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Manson’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Manson’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Manson’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.From the old history books
What they wrote about Manson in 1893
Passages that mention Manson, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The story of a storm, a history of the great tornado at Pomeroy, Calhoun County, Iowa, July 6, 1893 ..1893 · page 36Read the page →
Read the text
“ W. L. Thompson, of Manson, writes that the storm began in the southwestern part of Cherokee county and ended about four miles west of Manson, in Calhoun county (about four miles east of Pomeroy). The day was close and sultry, no air stirring, the mercury at 2 p.m. at
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The story of a storm, a history of the great tornado at Pomeroy, Calhoun County, Iowa, July 6, 1893 ..1893 · page 155Read the page →
Read the text
The supplies received on Friday, coming mainly from Manson, Fort Dodge and other near towns on the Illinois Central Railroad, consisted of bedding, clothing, bandages, medicines and eatables, and there was enough of these toa supply immediate demands. During the day fifty state tents were sent in to be placed at the disposal of the relief committee. Several of these were utilized as hospitals for the wounded and the rest were occupied as sleeping and
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.
Timeline
Manson, 1866 to 1979
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1866Post officeThe Yatesville post office opens
- 1871Post officeThe Yatesville post office closes
- 1871Post officeThe Manson post office opens
- 20th century
- 1917
In the archiveLiberty Bonds - Public Gatherings - Boosting the third Liberty Loan - 1979
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade
Manson, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1910s2 items
19171920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your albumToday2 recent
2021
2004On the map
Manson on the map, 1979 to 1984
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Manson. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1979Manson 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 Manson.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewLiberty Bonds - Public Gatherings - Boosting the third Liberty Loan, 1917
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Manson’s page.
Retake this view · +15People over time
Manson, census by census
Between 377 and 1,993 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Manson’s Wikipedia page.
Places that used to be
Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds
Manson’s post office has been open since 1871. Another post office, Yatesville, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Yatesville
Manson
18601940today
Gone or out of use
Lincoln Number One Schoolschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Manson
Rose HillSaint Thomas
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Manson’s history
What year was Manson founded?
The Manson post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Manson rank for history?
Manson is more historic than 42% 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.
How old are the homes in Manson?
24% of Manson’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1968.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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).
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 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.