Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
J. A. Symns Barn · Photo: 25or6to4 · CC BY-SA 4.04 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 3 old photos and papers and maps from 1926 on.
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 Independence Township’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.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Independence Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Independence Township is a township in Doniphan County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 257.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 289 to 257 (-11%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveIndependence, Kansas
In the archiveIndependence, Kans., Penn. Ave. & Myrtle St
In the archive1888-1913, Jubel - Synode des Kans - Distrikts zu Independence, Kans., 8-14 Oktober 1913
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Independence Township. 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 Independence Township.
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 Independence Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Independence Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Green Top, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the J. A. Symns Barn (listed 1987, the first).
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 the Library of Congress (3), the National Register of Historic Places (4), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
