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History · St. Vincent

St. Vincent’s post office opened in 1878, and 53% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1979 on and the census since 1900.

1878first post office
0on the National Register
53%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Andrew Filer · CC BY-SA 2.0
Quick answers

How St. Vincent began

When was St. Vincent founded?

1878

The St. Vincent post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 256 in 19002020 census: 57148 years
Founding year: the first St. Vincent post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about St. Vincent’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 St. Vincent are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of St. Vincent’s homes were built before 1938.Boom and bustPeaked at 343 in 1920; 57 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start St. Vincent’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how St. Vincent’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How St. Vincent came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of St. Vincent.

Read it all →

St. Vincent, which is directly across the Red River from Pembina, was initially incorporated in 1857, just prior to statehood. Many of the earliest settlers to what would become Pembina and St. Vincent were Métis, going back to the late 18th century. In 1878, the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad line reached St. Vincent and opened the area to settlement. With the railroad coming through, other settlers began arriving to stake their claims.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

People over time

St. Vincent, census by census

01002003001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 343

Peaked at 343 in 1920; 57 people lived here in 2020.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

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

Timeline

St. Vincent, 1878 to 1979

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1878Post officeThe Saint Vincent post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 343
  5. 1979On 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

St. Vincent on the map, 1979 to 1985

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

St. Vincent on the 1979 USGS mapSt. Vincent on the 1985 USGS map1979Pembina 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 St. Vincent.

Places that used to be

Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Saint Vincent
Gone or out of use
Saint Vincentlocale
1cemetery inside St. Vincent
Saint Vincent

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

St. Vincent Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about St. Vincent’s history

What year was St. Vincent founded?

The St. Vincent post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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 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.