Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1986 on and the census since 1900.
The Merrill post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1894.
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 Merrill’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Merrill.
Merrill was named in 1872 for the seventh governor of Iowa, Samuel Merrill. It and became an incorporated city on April 24, 1894.
In 2007, the city hired Drake University public relations seniors to research and develop strategies to attract new residents.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Merrill, cut from the printed page as they were published.
place well improved. In the meantime he was buying other land near Merrill and acquired three hundred and sixty acres, later moving onto his farm in Plymouth township, where he lived until 1897, when, following his appointment to the position of postmaster of Merrill, he sold his farm and moved to Merrill, where he made his home until the expiration of his term of office in 1915, he having been postmaster of Merrill for more than seventeen years.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
William J. Lawrence received his schooling in the district schools of his home neighborhood in Wisconsin and remained there until he was twenty years of age, when, in the spring of 1873, he came to Plymouth county and has resided here ever since. In 1898 when the Bank of Merrill was established at Merrill, Mr. Lawrence was made cashier of that institution 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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Merrill.
1986Sioux City North sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Merrill.
Between 389 and 790 people in every census since 1900.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Merrill’s Wikipedia page.
The Merrill post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1894.
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 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.