Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: old-book passages.
The Hector post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1878.
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 Hector’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Hector.
Hector was founded in 1878 when the Hastings and Dakota Railway Company constructed the railroad on the north side of the original town site. The ten-block town site survey was completed on September 14, 1878, on land owned by the Hastings and Dakota.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Hector, cut from the printed page as they were published.
In 1896 the cholera epidemic became general about Hector. Geo. Johnson, now of the firm of Johnson Bros., hardware and implement dealers of Hector, owned a farm in Hector township at the time and lost over 60 hogs. Joe Nicke, who lived on the Geo. Eichmiller farm in Osceola, now owned by August Beske, lost 80 fat hogs in 1896. Nicke had bought hogs from various parties to fatten. He told Chas. Wolff, then a farmer of Melville township, that his hogs would not get cholera because he was
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In 1885 the village of Bird Island was the metropolis of Renville county. It had a population of 567, which was larger than the combined population of Olivia, Renville and Hector. Hector was the second largest town with a population of 235, and Sacred Heart third, with a population of 207. Bird Island discarded her swaddling clothes and assumed metropolitan airs at an early age. Being a railroad division point she had an advantage over her sister towns; men of means invested there, and induced others to en-
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 hereDorothy Peterson is born hereWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Hector post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1878.
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, 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.