Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Brickett Place. Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1794 on and old-book passages.
The Stow post office opened in 1833, 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 Stow’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archivePlan of Bradley's and Eastman's Land (Stow, Me) surveyor's name not given, dated 1794-179…Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Stow yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Stow is a town in Oxford County, Maine, United States. The population was 393 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1833. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 385 to 393 (+2%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Stow, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Brownfield (Brownsfield), settled 1765, incorporated 1800, 250 287 Buckfield (Buck-town or No. 5) , settled 1776, incor. 1793, 453 1002 Dixfield,* settled 1795, incorporated 1803, 137 Fryeburg and Stow (Fryeburg-addition, Pequawkett), settled 1763, incorporated 1777, 547 734 Gilead (Peabodys Patent),* settled 1780, incor. 1805, 88 1 The towns starred made no returns of population ; with the exception of Paris they could have had but a handful of settlers each. The
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1790s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Stow had its own post office from 1833 to 1959.
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.
The Stow post office opened in 1833, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Brickett Place (listed 1982).
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 (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System 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.
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