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History · Converse

Converse’s post office opened in 1897

Most of Converse was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1992. Below: maps from 1941 on and the census since 1930.

1897first post office
0on the National Register
2%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Converse began

When was Converse founded?

1897

The Converse post office opened in 1897, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 291 in 19302020 census: 379129 years
Founding year: the first Converse post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Converse’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 Converse are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Converse’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Converse’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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The story

How Converse came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Converse.

Read it all →

Converse was home to a community of African Americans referred to as Babsolina and the Sabine Normal and Industrial Institute, a normal and vocational school for African Americans.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Converse, decade by decade

Today1 recent
LAMap-doton-Converse2004LAMap-doton-Converse
On the map

Converse on the map, 1941 to 1994

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

Converse on the 1941 USGS mapConverse on the 1957 USGS mapConverse on the 1989 USGS mapConverse on the 1994 USGS map1941Pelican sheet · 1:62,500

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

People over time

Converse, census by census

010020030040050019401960198020002020Peak: 449

Between 291 and 449 people in every census since 1930.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

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

Questions about Converse’s history

What year was Converse founded?

The Converse post office opened in 1897, 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 Wikimedia Commons (1), 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.