Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1820.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Boonville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Boonville is more historic than 94% of U.S. towns, #92 of 593 in Indiana. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its age lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Boonville’s overall grade.
Indiana towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Indiana town has 7.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Boonville’s 76.1 sits above most of its state (79% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 51 historic buildings outnumber those of 85% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would still be A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.0 points). Two sources give 1818.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Boonville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Boonville was founded in 1818 and named for Jesse Boon, father of Ratliff Boon. A post office has been in operation at Boonville since 1820. Boonville was incorporated in 1858 as a town and once again in 1906 as a city.
President Abraham Lincoln studied law in Boonville. When Abraham Lincoln and his family moved from Kentucky to present-day Spencer County in 1816, their homestead was then considered to be within Boonville's Warrick County boundaries. The future president frequently walked to Boonville to borrow books and watch local attorney John Brackenridge argue cases, thus earning Boonville the distinction of being "where Lincoln learned the law."
Passages that mention Boonville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Warrick and its prominent people1881 · page 22Read the page →
Read the text
Boonville in embryo was a town of great promise. Being centrally situated the citizens of the county were not slow to perceive its advantages. Darlington was no convenient point for the seat of justice, where it was then located, and, therefore, after the organization of the counties of Spencer on the east and Vanderburgh on the west of the territory of Warrick, the Legislature passed an act in 1818 removing the capitol of the latter county from Darlington to Boonville. This change was more
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Warrick and its prominent people1881 · page 118Read the page →
Read the text
In February, 1878, he received the appointment as postmaster of Boonville without seeking the position or having thought of the matter. At the time he took charge of the office it was in a bad state, but under his management it has improved, until to-day no postoffice of like proportions stands higher at the Postoffice Department in Washington. The mail handled and revenue receipts have increased to an amount somewhat remarkable for an interior town, and the system with which the office
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
Boonville, 1818 to 1942
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
In 1818, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Boonville’s post office opened in 1820, and the census of 1850 counted 196 people here.
How does Boonville rank for history?
Boonville is more historic than 94% of U.S. towns, #92 of 593 in Indiana. 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.
What is on the National Register in Boonville?
Two places: the Old Warrick County Jail (listed 1979) and the Boonville Public Square Historic District (1987).
How old are the homes in Boonville?
33% of Boonville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.0 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1965.
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), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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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