The story
Read it all →How Harmony came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Harmony.
Amish came to Fillmore County in 1974 from Ohio, seeking cheaper land.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
B+History
History · Harmony
Harmony’s post office opened in 1869, and 25% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 67% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the McMichael Grain Elevator. Below: old-book passages.
1869first post office
1on the National Register
25%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Quick answers
How Harmony began
When was Harmony founded?
1869
The Harmony post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name.
2020 census: 1,043157 years
How historic is Harmony?
B+
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 67% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Harmony post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Harmony’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Harmony is more historic than 67% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Harmony’s overall grade.
Founding era1869, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 194025.3% of homes (±5.0) · typical MN town 8.1% · U.S. 8.4%A−National Register1 listing, 9.8 per 10,000 residents · typical MN town 2.1 · U.S. 2.4B
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 67%
NewerOlder
Minnesota towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Minnesota town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Harmony’s 9.8 sits above most of its state (76% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Harmony’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Harmony’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Harmony’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.From the old history books
What they wrote about Harmony in 1912
Passages that mention Harmony, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Fillmore County, Minnesota (Volume 1)1912Read the page →
Read the text
Harmony in 1882. As soon as the railroad station was located in Harmony and the stores began to open the village became a trading center, and gradually houses for residences were erected.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Fillmore County, Minnesota (Volume 1)1912Read the page →
Read the text
Harmony Precinct (101-10) embraced the present township of Harmony. The judges of election were to be After Hoag, William Stork and William Walter. The election was to be held at the Greenfield Hotel.
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.
By decade
Harmony, decade by decade
2023
2017
2009
2009
2006
2005On the National Register
1 historic place in Harmony
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2023
McMichael Grain Elevator
All 1 listings
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Places that used to be
Old corners and places now gone
Harmony’s post office has been open since 1869.
Hamlets and corners on the map
Harmony Mobile Home ParkVikre Manufactured Home Park
Gone or out of use
Harmonylocale
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Harmony’s history
What year was Harmony founded?
The Harmony post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Harmony rank for history?
Harmony is more historic than 67% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Harmony?
One place: the McMichael Grain Elevator (listed 2023).
How old are the homes in Harmony?
25% of Harmony’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1961.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.