Photo: Billwhittaker at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers
How Rudd began
When was Rudd founded?
1869
The Rudd post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Flood Creek (1856), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
2020 census: 358157 years
Founding year: the first Rudd post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Rudd’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Rudd yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Rudd is a city in Floyd County, Iowa, United States. The population was 358 at the time of the 2020 census, a decline of 16.9% from 431 in 2000. A post office opened in Rudd in 1869.
Its first post office opened in 1869. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 369 to 358 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Rudd in 1882
Passages that mention Rudd, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The village of Rudd (formerly Danville) was laid out and platted in the fall of 1869, by James Swartwood, who built the Swartwood House and a warehouse the same fall. Mr. Swartwood bought the first bushel of grain for shipment at Rudd about the time of erecting the warehouse. Basset vfe Hunting also erected a warehouse in '69, and George Hall erected one in the 8|>ring of 1870.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The village of Rudd (formerly Danville) was laid out and platted in the fall of 1869, by James Swartwood, who built the Swartwood House and a warehouse the same fall. Mr. Swartwood bought the first bushel of grain for shipment at Rudd about the time of erecting the warehouse. Basset & Hunting also erected a warehouse in '69, and George Hall erected one in the spring of 1870.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
now in the public park, in the city of Nora Springs. This township is the northwestern one of Floyd County. It is bounded on the north by Union Township, in Mitchell County, on the 'east by the Township of Rudd, on tlie south by the Township of Rockford, and on the west by the Township of Portland, in Cerro Gordo County. It is seven miles long from north to south, aud the north half is six miles wide, from east to west. From the east side of the south hall a strip one half a mile in width was in 1870 shorn
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
now in the public park, in the city of Nora Springs. This township is the northwestern one of Floyd County. It is bounded on the north by Union Township, in Mitchell County, on the 'east by the Township of Rudd, on the south by the Township of Rockford, and on the west by the Township of Portland, in Cerro Gordo County. It is seven miles long from north to south, and the north half is six miles wide, from east to west. From the east side of the south halt jbl strip one hali a mile in width was in 1870 shorn
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
Rudd, 1856 to 1933
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
2009
2004