Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1951 on and the census since 1910.
Truro dates its founding to 1850 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1910.
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 Truro’s history is told.
Truro’s post office has been open since 1882. Two other post offices 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Truro.
Truro was laid out and platted in 1881. It was first settled as Ohio Township in the early 1850s, by settlers who came primarily from Ohio. In 1881 the town was named after the city of Truro in Cornwall, United Kingdom, by suggestion of the local train conductor, whose hometown was Truro on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Truro, cut from the printed page as they were published.
TRURO Truro is a thriving little village of about 325 inhabitants, situated on the summit of the divide between Clanton Creek and South River, overlooking a most beautiful, fertile and well improved farming district. It stands on section 15 and near the center of Ohio Township, on the line of the Des Moines & Kansas City (Chicago Great Western) Railroad, and was laid off and platted August 3, 1881, for the owner, James Hull, by R. A. Patterson, surveyor. In 1902 the town was incorporated and the first mayor was W. W. Atkinson.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The Christian Church was organized in the winter of 1856, by A. D. Kellison, at the home of Ephraim Delong, about two miles south of the present Town of Truro. For some time the meetings were held at private houses. Later, after schoolhouses were built, the meetings were held in the Banner schoolhouse, two miles northeast of the center of Ohjo Township. Later, in the early '70s, the meet- •ings were moved to a schoolhouse one mile south of the center of the township, known as the Hartman schoolhouse. In 1875-6 the society erected a church building 30x40 feet, three-fourths of a mile south of the center of the township and
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Truro. 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 Truro.
Between 310 and 509 people in every census since 1910.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Truro’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Truro itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
In 1850, according to Wikidata. Truro’s post office opened in 1881, and the census of 1910 counted 310 people here.
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 (6), 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.
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
