Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1958 on and the census since 1860.
The Elizabethtown post office opened in 1844, the earliest record of the town by name.
Elizabethtown was named for Elizabeth Branham, the wife of the founder.
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 Elizabethtown’s history is told.
Peaked at 603 in 1980; 406 people lived here in 2020.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Elizabethtown’s Wikipedia page.
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 SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Elizabethtown.
Elizabethtown was platted in 1845. It was named for Elizabeth Branham, the wife of the founder. The post office at Elizabethtown has been in operation since 1844.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Elizabethtown, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A mortgage foreclosure notice published in The Reveille of Oct. 12, 1814, shows that on the 5th day of August, 1808, “Theodoras Ross of the Town of Elizabethtown in the County of Essex” borrowed $500 of Jonas Gibbs, Jr., for which he gave security on 143 acres of land in Elizabethtown. In default of payment said Gibbs advertised to sell the land to the highest bidder “at the house now occupied by Norman Newell and son in Elizabethtown aforesaid.” The advertisement com-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
abethtown aforesaid and is bounded as follows towit — Beginning at a stake south thirty seven degrees and thirty minutes west from the southwest corner of the court house in said town of Elizabethtown one chain and sixty two links and runs thence north sixty eight degrees east three chains and twenty five links to a stake thence north twenty five degrees west three chains and eight links to a stake. Thence south sixty eight degrees west three chains and twenty five links to a stake.
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Elizabethtown. 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 Elizabethtown.
The Elizabethtown post office opened in 1844, 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 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.
