Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Clements State Bank Building. Below: maps from 1967 on and the census since 1910.
The Clements post office opened in 1900, 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 Clements’s history is told.
Peaked at 269 in 1960; 155 people lived here in 2020.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Clements’ Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Clements.
A post office has been in operation at Clements since 1900. Clements was platted in 1902. The city was named for Peter O. Clements, an early settler.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Clements, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Clements postoffice was established as Three Lakes postoffice about a mile from the present village. L. J. Rongstad, the postmaster, moved the postoffice to the new village of Clements, in June, 1900. He was followed by William Kuehn, who served from April 1, 1912, to Jannuary 1, 1915. Then came the present postmaster, Gustave Backer.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The railroad was built through the present site of Clements in 1902. A little trading center had been located one mile north of the what is now the village. At that point was the Three Lakes Farmers' Co-operative Creamery, with J. J. Lorentzon as butter maker. There also was the general store of Rongstad & Thorston, in which was kept the Clements postoffice with L. J. Rongstad as postmaster. A tri-weekly stage to Morgan carried the mail.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Clements. 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 Clements.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Clements itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Clements’s post office has been open since 1900.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Clements post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Clements State Bank Building (listed 1980).
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 Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
