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Roscoe Butter and Cheese FactoryRoscoe Butter and Cheese Factory · Photo: McGhiever · CC BY-SA 3.0
–Not graded
History · Roscoe Township

Roscoe Township’s post office opened in 1857, and 33% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Roscoe Butter and Cheese Factory. Below: maps from 1965 on.

1857first post office
1on the National Register
33%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Roscoe Township began

When was Roscoe Township founded?

1857

The Roscoe Township post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Roscoe (1857), Sunapee (1858) and Roscoe Centre (1863), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 744169 years
Founding year: the first Roscoe Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Roscoe 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 Roscoe Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Roscoe Township, and 2 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Roscoe Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Roscoe 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

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

Roscoe
1857–1905
Sunapee
1858–1863
Roscoe Centre
1863–1882
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
RoscoeRoscoe Center
Gone or out of use
Roscoe Center Post Officepost office
4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Roscoe Township
AndristCounty LineFree MissionStordahl Norwegian Lutheran

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

The story so far

Roscoe Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Roscoe Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Roscoe Township is a township in Goodhue County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 784 at the 2000 census. At its high point, the township had a convenience store, school and more. Today - little is left to identify it other than a group of houses on the corner of Cty 27 blvd. and Cty 11 blvd. Roscoe Township was organized in 1858, and named after Roscoe, Illinois, the hometown of an early settler.

Its first post office opened in 1857. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 732 in 2010, 744 in 2020.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Roscoe Township, 1857 to 1965

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1857Post officeThe Roscoe post office opens
  3. 1858Post officeThe Sunapee post office opens
  4. 1863Post officeThe Sunapee post office closes
  5. 1863Post officeThe Roscoe Centre post office opens
  6. 1882Post officeThe Roscoe Centre post office closes
  7. 20th century
  8. 1905Post officeThe Roscoe post office closes
  9. 1965On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Roscoe Township on the map, 1965 to 1985

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

Roscoe Township on the 1965 USGS mapRoscoe Township on the 1985 USGS map1965Pine Island 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 Roscoe Township.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Roscoe Township

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1980
Roscoe Butter and Cheese Factory
Roscoe Butter and Cheese Factory
Buildings
Roscoe Butter and Cheese FactoryBuilding

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Zumbrota2 historic placesBPine Island Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townCherry Grove Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMilton TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMinneola TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townNew Haven TownshipIts storyC+

Questions about Roscoe Township’s history

What year was Roscoe Township founded?

The Roscoe Township post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Roscoe Township?

One place: the Roscoe Butter and Cheese Factory (listed 1980).

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
Start a conversation
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.