Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 42 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1901 on, and the census since 1850.
The Vernon post office opened in 1817, 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 Vernon’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 Vernon.
Vernon was named after Mount Vernon, George Washington's plantation estate in Virginia. The Vernon post office was established in 1817.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Vernon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
As the first white settlements in Vernon county were made in this quarter, so the first mills, shops and stores were here. In 1839 Capt. William Waldo established a store on the south side of the Marmaton (sec. 33), near what was then and long after¬ wards known as the Cephas Ford, exactly where is now the bridge across the Marmaton of the Pleasant Hill, Nevada and Joplin branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The previous year Captain Waldo had put up a considerable mercantile estab¬
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
On first settling in Vernon county, he worked for a time for the railroad company, having charge of the pumping station ; but when the watering station was removed he resumed farming and has carried it on with good success since.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
cousins, followed him, and they gave the name of McFaddin's Bluff to the locality, by which it was known until and some time after the town of Mt. Vernon was laid out. For a year after their advent into this country they resided on the land which is now owned by Frederick Hagerman, and which formerly belonged to Jesse Oatman. Trading boats landed at the rocks in front of this farm until about the year i3io, when they began to stop at the present wharf, which was constructed by Moses Ross,
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.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Vernon. 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 Vernon.
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.
1901Sheet 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 Vernon’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 236 and 690 people in every census since 1850.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Vernon’s Wikipedia page.
The Vernon post office opened in 1817, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Vernon Historic District (listed 1976).
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 (4), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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, 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?
2015
2001