Founding year: the first Treynor post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Treynor’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Treynor is more historic than 26% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Treynor’s overall grade.
Iowa towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Iowa town has 9.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Treynor’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (17% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.4 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Treynor’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Treynor began east of Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the late 1880s with the establishment of Fritz Eyberg's General Store, August Olderog's dance hall and saloon, and St Paul's German Evangelical Church. The vicinity east of Middle Silver Creek had previously been known for its number of wolves. Local German immigrant farmers referred to the settlement as Four Corners or High Five, a popular card name, until the post office opened in the early 1890s as Treynor, named after the recently deceased Council Bluffs postmaster.
Passages that mention Treynor, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, from the earliest historic times to 19071907 · page 408Read the page →
Read the text
village of Treynor. It was unbroken prairie when it came into his possession and he paid about ten dollars per acre for the tract. It has since increased in value tenfold owing to the rapid settlement of the county and the splendid improvements which Mr. Olderog has placed upon it. He has erected good buildings here, has set out a fine grove of maple trees, having brought the nursery stock from Davenport, and has also planted an orchard which has come into good bearing. For the first two or three years after he came to the county he continued to work at his trade to some extent
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, from the earliest historic times to 19071907 · page 236Read the page →
Read the text
The school population, according to the state census of 190."i. exclusive of town of Treynor, was two hundred and fourteen, of which one hundred and sixteen were males and ninety-eight female-
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.
The Treynor post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Treynor rank for history?
Treynor is more historic than 26% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Treynor?
10% of Treynor’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.4 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1973.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (2), 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.
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