A post office has been in operation at Hillsdale since 1872. The town was laid out in 1873. The community was so named on account of its lofty elevation. Its early businesses were located at the bottom of the hill, near the railroad depot, but most of the houses were built higher up on the hillside. This elevation difference complicated movement between the two sections of the community, so in 1903 the Hillsdale Steps were built on the hillside to improve foot transportation.
Passages that mention Hillsdale, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York1883Read the page →
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Hillsdale Village on the south line, near the east corner, is a station on the Harlem R. R. It is a smart little village of about 500 inhabitants and contains three hotels, two churches (Methodist and Presbyterian), about half a dozen stores of various kinds, several wagon shops and blacksmith shops, a grist mill, saw mill, two tin shops, harness shop, foundry of plows, where large numbers of Hillsdale iron beam plows are annually manufactured
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Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan1903 · page 54Read the page →
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In 1855 the south half of Fayette was set off and made the township of Hillsdale, it being six miles in length from east to west with a width of three miles. This embraced the village of Hills¬ dale, which, on its incorporation as a city in April, 1869, became a separate civil organization, the city officers becoming George W. Under¬ wood, mayor ; Henry J. King, treasurer ; Samuel
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Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan1903Read the page →
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the east by Lenawee county, on the south by Ohio, on the west it is bordered by Indiana and Branch county. Organized in 1835, it now embraces the city of Hillsdale and eighteen organized town¬ ships, Adams, Allen, Amboy, Cambria, Camden, Fayette, Hillsdale, Jefferson, Litchfield, Moscow, Pittsford, Ransom, Reading, Scipio, Somerset, Wheatland, Woodbridge and Wright. The very
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A history of Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York1883Read the page →
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company and certain individuals over whose premises the road was required to run. In 1837, and for seven successive years, he was elected supervisor in the town of Hillsdale. He was a delegate to the Congressional Convention which gave Robert McClellan his first nomination to Congress, and when the tariff act of 1842 was under consideration, Mr. McClellan sent him a draft of the bill and
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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 →
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2009
