Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Kimball Prairie Village Hall. Below: maps from 1967 on and the census since 1900.
The Kimball post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Kimball Prairie (1867), opened inside today’s city 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 Kimball’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Kimball.
A post office called Kimball has been in operation since 1887. The settlement of Maine Prairie moved when the railroad came though Kimball. The city was named for Frye Kimball, an early settler. Kimball has one property listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the 1908 Kimball City Hall.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Kimball, cut from the printed page as they were published.
November 28. — The village of Kimball Prairie has gone dry, its only saloon having been closed Wednesday last by order of the council.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kimball. 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 Kimball.
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.
Between 327 and 812 people in every census since 1900.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kimball’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Kimball itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Kimball’s post office has been open since 1887. Another post office, Kimball Prairie, 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).
The Kimball post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Kimball Prairie Village Hall (listed 1982).
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 Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.
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