The Hawley post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Yeovil (1873), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
2020 census: 2,219153 years
How historic is Hawley?
C+
More historic than 36% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Hawley post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Hawley’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hawley is more historic than 36% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Hawley’s overall grade.
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 Hawley’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (23% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.3 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 Hawley’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The town went through six quick name changes after 1871 until, in 1872, it was finally named after Thomas Hawley Canfield, an officer in the Northern Pacific Railway, which laid out the town. General George Custer visited the town in 1876. The incident was recalled in WCCO Television's short film Incident at Hawley, which aired during America's bicentennial year of 1976.
Hawley was at one time settled by a colony of immigrants from Yeovil, Somerset; among these was Elisabeth Chant, later a painter in Minneapolis.
Passages that mention Hawley, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Life of Thomas Hawley Canfield [microform]1889 · page 44Read the page →
Read the text
names, viz.: Liberty for the town, Loring for the postoffice, and Lake Side for the railroad station, About 1876 the three, at the suggestion of the Rev Dr. Hawley, were merged into Lake Par! he railroad reached here in a 1871, and the cars have run regularly ever i sixty since. The greater portion of the people athe bh
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.
Timeline
Hawley, 1873 to 1996
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Hawley post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Hawley rank for history?
Hawley is more historic than 36% 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.
How old are the homes in Hawley?
17% of Hawley’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.3 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1981.
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), 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.
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