Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1931 on, and the census since 1890.
The Free Soil post office opened in 1862, 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 Free Soil’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Free Soil.
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.
Passages that mention Free Soil, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Traveling still further northwest five and a quarter miles is the station of Free Soil, where is built a comfortable depot building, suitable for passengers and freight. The station is named after the township and postoffice bearing the same name. There are many fine farms in the township, the timber being beech, maple, elm, bass¬ wood and ash, with some scattering cork pine. There are two saw mills in operation, one a -water power by Tallman & Thompson, the other steam power, owned by Rothchilds, Case & Co. The latter
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The township of Free Soil is one of the three original townships erected at the time Mason County was organized. It comprised all of the county lying north of the division line between Townships 19 and 20 north. The first township meeting was held at the house of Charles Freeman, at Free Soil mills, in the Spring of 1855.
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 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Free Soil. 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.
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’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’s Wikipedia page.
The Free Soil 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) 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.
1980
2020
2019
2005
