Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1967 on and the census since 1900.
The Geneva post office opened in 1856, 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 Geneva’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1900 and 1910, then grew 3-fold.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Geneva’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Geneva.
A post office has been in operation at Geneva since 1855. Geneva was platted in 1857. The city was named after Geneva, New York. It was the birthplace of Lawrence B. Anderson (1906-1994), noted architect and educator who lead the architecture school at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Geneva, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The village of Geneva was platted in the winter of 1856-57 by James F. Jones and James Bobson, on section eight, and contained about four himdred acres. This was one of the first crop of villages ever raised in the county, and was very pleasantly situated, and of course calculated and expected to become the Chicago of the new Northwest.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
as near said section line as the surface of the the ground will admit, through towns 101, 102, and 103, thence in a northerly direction to the town of Geneva, thence north to the county line." Clark Andrews, of Shell Rock, and George P. Hoops were appointed viewers of the route.
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.
Born hereHarvey Holmes is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings 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 Geneva. 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 Geneva.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Geneva post office opened in 1856, 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 Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
