Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1954 on and the census since 1920.
The Nemaha post office opened in 1899, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Nemaha’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Nemaha yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Nemaha is a city in Sac County, Iowa, United States. The population was 66 at the time of the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1899. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 85 to 66 (-22%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Nemaha, cut from the printed page as they were published.
boro, Boone county. Iowa, and took up a homestead of land in the northwest quarter of section 34, township 89, range 36. consisting of a hundred and sixty acres. He remained there until 1903. when he retired to the village of Nemaha, where he now resides. He saw many hardships, in the settlement of this township and, being poor at the date of his settlement, he was compelled to drive oxen, and was only too glad to have that good a team. He kept a few milk cows and made l>utter, the surplus of which he took, by means of his faithful ox team, to Newell, on the Illinois Central railroad, in Buena Vista
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Dr. George W. Anderson located in the new town of Nemaha June 12, 1901, where he continued in practice perhaps five or six years, then moved to Colorado.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Nemaha. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Nemaha.
Between 66 and 184 people in every census since 1920.
11 censuses, 1920–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Nemaha’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Nemaha itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Nemaha post office opened in 1899, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 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.
