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History · Spring Grove Township

56% of Spring Grove Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1965 on and the census since 1880.

0on the National Register
56%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory

What stands out about Spring Grove 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 Spring Grove Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Spring Grove Township’s homes were built before 1938.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Spring Grove Township, and 2 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Spring Grove Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Spring Grove 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
The story

How Spring Grove Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Spring Grove Township.

Read it all →

A post office has been in operation at Spring Grove since 1855. The community was named for a spring and a grove near the original town site.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Riceford
1855–1905
Newhouse
1880–1933
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
NewhouseRiceford
Gone or out of use
NewhouselocaleNewhouse Post Officepost officeRiceford Post Officepost officeSylling Landing Fieldairport
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Spring Grove Township
BellviewRiceford Norwegian

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

From the old history books

What they wrote about Spring Grove Township in 1919

Passages that mention Spring Grove Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.

District No. 88, Spring Grove Township. This district was taken out of No. 57, in 1878. The first school was held at the residence of Knud Gilbertson, on section 23, in the winter or late fall of 1878. In the summer of 1879, a pretty schoolhouse now used was erected on section 24, on the farm of Kn…
History of Houston County, Minnesota1919 · page 131Read the page →
Read the text

District No. 88, Spring Grove Township. This district was taken out of No. 57, in 1878. The first school was held at the residence of Knud Gilbertson, on section 23, in the winter or late fall of 1878. In the summer of 1879, a pretty schoolhouse now used was erected on section 24, on the farm of Knud Gilbertson.

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.

Timeline

Spring Grove Township, 1855 to 1965

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1855Post officeThe Riceford post office opens
  3. 1880Post officeThe Newhouse post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1905Post officeThe Riceford post office closes
  6. 1933Post officeThe Newhouse post office closes
  7. 1965On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Spring Grove Township, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Spring Grove Phone Booth2010Spring Grove Phone BoothSoapboxRace2010SoapboxRaceSoapBoxRaceFinishLine2010SoapBoxRaceFinishLineRockfilter Distillery Spring Grove, MN2010Rockfilter Distillery Spring Grove, MNSpring Grovepl2009Spring GroveplMNMap-doton-Spring Grove2005MNMap-doton-Spring Grove
On the map

Spring Grove Township on the map, 1965 to 1990

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

Spring Grove Township on the 1965 USGS mapSpring Grove Township on the 1984 USGS mapSpring Grove Township on the 1990 USGS map1965Spring Grove 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 Spring Grove Township.

People over time

Spring Grove Township, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001,40018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,342

Between 293 and 1,342 people in every census since 1880.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Spring Grove1 historic placeB+Black Hammer Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWilmington TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townNewburg TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Spring Grove 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 (6), 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.