Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: old-book passages.
The Rickardsville post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Jefferson (1857), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
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 Rickardsville’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Rickardsville yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Rickardsville is a city in Dubuque County, Iowa, United States. The population was 202 at the time of the 2020 census, up from 191 in 2000.
Its first post office opened in 1868. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 182 to 202 (+11%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Rickardsville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
St. Joseph's church at Rickardsville w'as established by the French settlers before 1837. about two miles south of the present church. Father Cretin, later bishop, was the first pastor and probably organized the congregation. In 1840 Bishop Loras offered the holy sacrifice of the mass and occasionally preached to the congregation. In i860 a large frame church was erected at Rickardsville, which was nearer the center of the parish. In 1905 a fine brick building was erected. Among the pastors have been
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.
Nobody well known was born in Rickardsville itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Rickardsville had its own post office from 1868 to 1902. Another post office, Jefferson, 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 Rickardsville post office opened in 1868, 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 Wikimedia Commons (2), 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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