Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Church of St. Thomas.
The Jessenland Township post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Jessen Land (1857), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Jessenland Township’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Jessenland Township.
Before European settlement, the area was originally inhabited by the Dakota people, who lived along the Minnesota River and used the land for hunting and fishing. Following the signing of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, much of the surrounding territory was opened to European-American settlers.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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 Jessenland Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Jessen Land, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Jessenland Township post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Church of St. Thomas (listed 1991).
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
