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History · Bigelow Township

39% of Bigelow Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1960 on, and the census since 1880.

0on the National Register
39%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Bigelow Township’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Bigelow Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bigelow Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bigelow Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewBigelow Township, MN, 1914: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Bigelow Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bigelow Township.

Read it all →

Beginnings: The town of Bigelow was the third community to come into existence in Nobles County. The first two were Worthington and Brewster. All three towns appeared on the map in 1871, though Bigelow remained nothing more than that - a spot on a map - until the spring of 1872, when the tracks of the St. Paul & Sioux City Railway reached the site of the present-day town. Throughout the summer of 1872, the site was occupied only by a large tent which furnished shelter for the construction crew. A railroad depot was constructed in September 1872, and Mr. S. O. Morse assumed duties as station agent. He went into partnership with a man named Frothingham, and the two established a small grocery store in the depot. This was the only business established in 1872.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Bigelow Township, 1895 to 1960

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1895Post officeThe Org post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1917Post officeThe Org post office closes
  5. 1960On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Bigelow Township, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Bigelow Township, MN, 1914Date?Bigelow Township, MN, 1914
Today2 recent
Welcome-to-Minnesota sign, in the shape of the state, near Bigelow on the Iowa border2020Welcome-to-Minnesota sign, in the shape of the state,…Bigelow, Minnsota, satellite photo2013Bigelow, Minnsota, satellite photo
On the map

Bigelow Township on the map, 1960 to 1985

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

Bigelow Township on the 1960 USGS mapBigelow Township on the 1976 USGS mapBigelow Township on the 1985 USGS map1960Worthington South sheet · 1:24,000

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

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Bigelow Township, MN, 1914
Retake this viewBigelow Township, MN, 1914

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Bigelow Township’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Bigelow Township, census by census

010020018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 262

Between 28 and 262 people in every census since 1880.

13 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and places now gone

Another post office, Org, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Org
Gone or out of use
Org Post Officepost office

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Indian Lake TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWorthington TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBigelowIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townRansom TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Bigelow Township’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
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 (2), the Library of Congress (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.