Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Milton

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Milton

Milton’s post office opened in 1851, and 33% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1970 on and the census since 1880.

1851first post office
0on the National Register
33%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: PopePompus · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Milton began

When was Milton founded?

1851

The Milton post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 412 in 18802020 census: 380175 years
Founding year: the first Milton post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Milton’s 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 Milton are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 913 in 1910; 380 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Milton’s homes were built before 1964.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Milton’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Milton, census by census

02004006008001,00018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 913

Peaked at 913 in 1910; 380 people lived here in 2020.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

The story

How Milton came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Milton.

Read it all →

Milton was laid out in 1851. In 1872, Milton experienced growth when the Burlington and Southwestern Railway was built through it. The town was founded by settlers from Milton, Delaware.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Milton in 1878

Passages that mention Milton, cut from the printed page as they were published.

C. Wandel and Levi Hayes are both claimants for the honor of having kept the first store at Milton. H. D. Wallace was the first Postmaster. Logan Wallace was the first physician, and Thomas Hollinsworth was the first Justice.
The history of Van Buren County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c, a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics ... history of the Northwest, history1878 · page 499Read the page →
Read the text

C. Wandel and Levi Hayes are both claimants for the honor of having kept the first store at Milton. H. D. Wallace was the first Postmaster. Logan Wallace was the first physician, and Thomas Hollinsworth was the first Justice.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
qua in 1866, and followed butchering one year, then farmed till 1874, when he went into the hardware business, in Milton, till the spring of 1877, then engaged in the lumber business till the November following, then came to Keosauqua and bought out Mr. F. Johnson's interest in the livery and expre…
The history of Van Buren County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c, a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics ... history of the Northwest, history1878 · page 526Read the page →
Read the text

qua in 1866, and followed butchering one year, then farmed till 1874, when he went into the hardware business, in Milton, till the spring of 1877, then engaged in the lumber business till the November following, then came to Keosauqua and bought out Mr. F. Johnson's interest in the livery and express

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

Milton, 1851 to 1970

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1851Post officeThe Milton post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1910CensusPopulation peaks at 913
  5. 1970On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Milton, decade by decade

Today2 recent
DJI 20240816134029 0050 D2024DJI 20240816134029 0050 DDJI 20240816133311 0045 D2024DJI 20240816133311 0045 D
On the map

Milton on the map, 1970 to 1981

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

Milton on the 1970 USGS mapMilton on the 1981 USGS map1970Milton sheet · 1:24,000

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

Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Milton’s post office has been open since 1851.

Gone or out of use
Miltonlocale
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Milton
Russell - OaksSunnyside

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

Questions about Milton’s history

What year was Milton founded?

The Milton post office opened in 1851, 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 (2), 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.