Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1870.
The Ridgeville post office opened in 1851, 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 Ridgeville’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Ridgeville.
A post office called Ridgeville has been in operation since 1851. The town was named for its lofty elevation. Joab Ward, an old Settler to Ridgeville since 1819, originally laid out the village of Ridgeville, Randolph County, Indiana in 1854.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Peaked at 1,042 in 1920; 688 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ridgeville’s Wikipedia page.
Passages that mention Ridgeville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Ridgeville.—The Methodists began to hold services about 1856, first at Mr. Renbarger’s, afterward at a schoolhouse in Ridgeville, as also on the Dilly farm, two miles northwest of Ridgeville, and at Robert Collier’s, northeast of the town. Class was held and services were established fifty or sixty years ago at, Ritenour’s, as elsewhere related.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The business of Ridgeville may be stated as follows: Two grist-mills, one water, one steam; two saw-mills, both steam; one handle factory; two dry goods stores, one large; four groeries, three shoe stores, three drug stores, two hardware stores, two harness shops, one tin and stove store, five physicians, three clergymen, four attorneys, three smith shops, three shoe shops, one jeweler, three barbers, two livery stables, two churches, one college, one post office, one schoolhouse, two depots, two hotels,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Stone Station (Clark Post Office)—Small unincorporated town and station on Richmond & Grand Rapids Railroad, on Sections 30 and 31, 21, 14, four miles from Winchester and four miles from Ridgeville. It is not a laid out town, but a small station on the Richmond & Fort Wayne Railroad, started about the time of the completion of that road, 1870. The placo is small, with but little business.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Ridgeville.—The schoolhouse at Ridgeville is an old frame building, with one room, and capable of accommodating only a single teacher. However, Ridgeville College furnishes rooms Josephine Sumption, Elias Boltz, 1878; Alexander Wood, 1879; William J. Houck, Gabriel A. Jacobs, David M. Odle, 1880.
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.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ridgeville.
1960Ridgeville sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Ridgeville.
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.
1892Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions 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 Ridgeville’s page.
Retake this view · +15The Ridgeville post office opened in 1851, 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 Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (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, 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.
Date?
2016