The Pleasant Grove Township post office opened in 1854, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Pleasant Grove (1854), Groesbeck (1883) and Simpson (1890), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 751172 years
Founding year: the first Pleasant Grove Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Pleasant Grove Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Pleasant Grove was platted in 1854, and named for a grove of oak trees near the original town site. A post office was established at Pleasant Grove in 1854, and remained in operation until 1905.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pleasant Grove Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1955Stewartville sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Pleasant Grove Township.
On the National Register
1 historic place in Pleasant Grove Township
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
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, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.