Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper and old-book passages.
The Saunemin post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Saunemin’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Saunemin yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1869. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 420 to 406 (-3%).
Passages that mention Saunemin, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Pleasant Ridge and Charlotte Townships were comprised in one election precinct, and it so stood until the second year after townsliip organization, when Pleasant Ridge and Charlotte were struck off, as noted in another place. When all four of these towns were embraced in one, it was called Saunemin, after the old sachem of the Kickapoo Indians, and was given to the precinct by Oliver, of the present township of Chatsworth, who settled there when Indians were plenty in the country, and knew the old chief well. The present township of Saunemin is about seven-eighths prairie to one-eighth of timber. The prairie
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Saunemin Post Office, the first in the township, was established in 1869, and A. W. Parks was the first Postmaster. He held the office for two years, when George D. Paddock became Postmaster, an office he still holds. The first store was opened by Paddock in the Fall of 1871, and is still in successful operation.
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.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Saunemin’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Saunemin itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Saunemin’s post office has been open since 1869.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Saunemin post office opened in 1869, 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 the Library of Congress (1), 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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