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History · Horace

Horace’s post office opened in 1886, and 11% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1970 on and the census since 1890.

1886first post office
0on the National Register
11%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Horace began

When was Horace founded?

1886

The Horace post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 150 in 18902020 census: 102140 years
Founding year: the first Horace post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Horace’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Horace are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 258 in 1950; 102 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Horace’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Horace’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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People over time

Horace, census by census

01002001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 258

Peaked at 258 in 1950; 102 people lived here in 2020.

14 censuses, 1890–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Horace’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Horace came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Horace.

Read it all →

Horace was established in 1886 when the Missouri Pacific Railroad passed through the area. The city is named after Horace Greeley of Chappaqua, New York, editor of the New York Tribune. Greeley encouraged western settlement with the motto "Go West, young man".

In 1887, Horace was officially incorporated. When it came time to select the county seat, Horace was a strong candidate, but despite being larger than nearby Tribune, it lost to its eastern neighbor just two miles away. Still, Horace thrived, and by 1888, it had 300 residents, a local newspaper, and a bank.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Horace, 1886 to 1970

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1886Post officeThe Horace post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1950CensusPopulation peaks at 258
  5. 1965Post officeThe Horace post office closes
  6. 1970On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Horace on the map, 1970 to 1985

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Horace. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Horace on the 1970 USGS mapHorace on the 1985 USGS map1970Tribune sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Horace.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Horace had its own post office from 1886 to 1965.

Horace
1886–1965
18801950today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Horace’s history

What year was Horace founded?

The Horace post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.