Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Nyttend · Public domain1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 56 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1953 on, and the census since 1880.
The La Fontaine post office opened in 1848, 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 La Fontaine’s history is told.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
From Wikipedia’s history of La Fontaine.
The community was named after Francis La Fontaine, a Miami Indian chief. According to early maps, the town was originally known as Ashland.
The La Fontaine post office has been in operation since 1848.
The LaFontaine Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention La Fontaine, cut from the printed page as they were published.
On the 26th day of June, 1854, he was gathered to his fathers. So far as can be ascertained, Mr. Jackson preached tlie first sermon within the limits of "Wabash County at the house of William Grant near the present town of La Fontaine, in the spring of 1835. And some time between 1835 aiul 1840, Brother Jacob Nelson, a veteran in the Reformation, who had settled among the wilds of Eel River, was laboring among the sparse settlements along that river, and during 1840 or 1841 visited Wabash a few times."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Henry Thomas. One of the fine landed estates of Wabash county is the La Fontaine Stock Farm, which comprises 19414 acres and which is most eligibly situated in Liberty township, one and one-half miles east of the thriving little city of La Fontaine. Mr. Thomas is the owner of this admirably improved farmstead, and in the pursuance of his farm enterprise he has brought to bear much dynamic energy and marked circumspection, so that his success has been of high order and gives him status as one of the progressive and representative farmers
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereMike Emrick is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of La Fontaine. 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 La Fontaine.
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 La Fontaine’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 295 and 946 people in every census since 1880.
13 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on La Fontaine’s Wikipedia page.
The La Fontaine post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the LaFontaine Historic District (listed 2014).
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 Wikimedia Commons (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 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.
Date?
2015
2015