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History · Preston Township

28% of Preston Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1965 on and the census since 1870.

0on the National Register
28%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Jonathunder · CC BY-SA 3.0

What stands out about Preston Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Preston Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Preston Township, and 1 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Preston Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Preston Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Scotland
1874–1886
Hutton
1892–1905
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Hutton
Gone or out of use
Hammervold Landing FieldairportHutton Post Officepost office
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Preston Township
HuttonRichland Prairie PresbyterianSoutheastern Minnesota State Veterans

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Preston Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Preston Township.

Read it all →

Preston was platted in 1855. The community was named for Luther Preston, a millwright and postmaster. The old Preston grain elevator used to be known as the Milwaukee Elevator Company Grain Elevator. It was built around 1890 for holding grain for shipment by railroad to the Eastern cities of the United States. The elevator was last used in the 1980s. It was built with "cribbed" construction, which has to do with interlocking bins. At the time it was a lot stronger and a lot more expensive to build it this way than to build it in stud construction. Now the Preston Historical Society is trying to restore the structure.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Preston Township, 1874 to 1965

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1874Post officeThe Scotland post office opens
  3. 1886Post officeThe Scotland post office closes
  4. 1892Post officeThe Hutton post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1905Post officeThe Hutton post office closes
  7. 1965On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Preston Township, decade by decade

Today5 recent
DowntownBlockPrestonMN2010DowntownBlockPrestonMNFillmoreCountyJournalBldg2009FillmoreCountyJournalBldg2009-0528-Preston-downtown20092009-0528-Preston-downtownHistoric Bluff Country Scenic Byway - Harmony-Preston Valley Trailhead Park2006Historic Bluff Country Scenic Byway - Harmony-Preston…Historic Bluff Country Scenic Byway - Farm above Harmony-Preston Trail2006Historic Bluff Country Scenic Byway - Farm above Harm…
On the map

Preston Township on the map, 1965 to 1985

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Preston Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Preston Township on the 1965 USGS mapPreston Township on the 1985 USGS map1965Preston sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Preston Township.

People over time

Preston Township, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001,4001,60018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,530

Between 600 and 1,530 people in every census since 1870.

15 censuses, 1870–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Preston Township’s Wikipedia page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Preston4 historic placesA−Carrolton Township2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townAmherst TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townHarmony Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townCarimona Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Preston Township’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

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 (5), Wikidata (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via 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.