Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1957 on, and the census since 1890.
The Free Soil Township post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Freeman's Mills (1855) and Free Soil (1862), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Free Soil Township’s history is told.
Two other post offices 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Free Soil Township.
The current village is actually the second settlement in Mason County to be named Free Soil. There are still a few homes in the area now known as "Old Freesoil".
The railroad was extended to Free Soil around 1882, and the village was incorporated in 1912. The community derives its name from the Free Soil Party.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveSauble River Cabins, Freesoil, MichiganOne decade in the archive so far: the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Free Soil 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 Free Soil 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 Free Soil Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 144 and 306 people in every census since 1890.
12 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Free Soil Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Free Soil Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Free Soil Township post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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), 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.
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