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History · Poplar Grove Township

Poplar Grove Township’s post office opened in 1848, and 16% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1918 on and the census since 1880.

1848first post office
0on the National Register
16%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Poplar Grove Township began

When was Poplar Grove Township founded?

1848

The Poplar Grove Township post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Beaverton (1855), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 163 in 18802020 census: 5,131178 years
Founding year: the first Poplar Grove Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Poplar Grove Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Poplar Grove Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19184 editions of the USGS map, 1918 to 1993. Watch Poplar Grove Township change.Deep rootsA post office since 1848: 178 years of Poplar Grove Township.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Poplar Grove Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Poplar Grove Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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On the map

Poplar Grove Township on the map, 1918 to 1993

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Poplar Grove Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Poplar Grove Township on the 1918 USGS mapPoplar Grove Township on the 1944 USGS mapPoplar Grove Township on the 1970 USGS mapPoplar Grove Township on the 1993 USGS map1918Belvidere sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Poplar Grove Township.

Timeline

Poplar Grove Township, 1855 to 1918

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1855Post officeThe Beaverton post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1900Post officeThe Beaverton post office closes
  5. 1918On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story

How Poplar Grove Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Poplar Grove Township.

Read it all →

Poplar Grove was named in 1845 for a grove of poplar trees near the original town site. A post office called Poplar Grove has been in operation since 1848.

ChaptersJanuary 2008 tornado

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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People over time

Poplar Grove Township, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,0004,5005,0005,500188019001920194019601980200020205,049

Grew from 163 people in 1880 to 5,049 in 2020, more than tenfold.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Poplar Grove Township’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Another post office, Beaverton, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Beaverton CrossroadsCandlewick Lake
Gone or out of use
Beaverton SchoolschoolOak Grove SchoolschoolQuailtrap SchoolschoolRay SchoolschoolWarrentown Schoolschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Poplar Grove Township
ClarkRussellville

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Caledonia TownshipIts storyC−Boone TownshipIts storyC+LeRoy TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Poplar Grove Township’s history

What year was Poplar Grove Township founded?

The Poplar Grove Township post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.