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History · Union Grove Township

24% of Union Grove Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1967 on.

0on the National Register
24%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory

What stands out about Union 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 Union Grove Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Union Grove Township, and 1 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Union Grove Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Union 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
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.

Lake Lydia
1867–1868
Crow River
1868–1909
18601940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Crow River
Gone or out of use
Crow River Post Officepost officeEmpire Valley Airportairport
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Union Grove Township
Burr OakManannah

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

The story

How Union Grove Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Union Grove Township.

Read it all →

Union Grove Township was settled in 1856 by Lyman Allen, Andrew Hamilton, John Lowell Haywood, and a man named Baker. Allen and Haywood returned to Massachusetts in 1860. Baker died in Union Grove for unknown reasons. Lyman Allen named the town for a grove of woods that surrounded a union church where Lyman was a member. The township was organized on April 18 or 30, 1866. The meeting was held in the home of Thomas Ryckman. These residents also found the necessity to rule that hogs and sheep could not run loose between April 1 and November 1. During and following the Dakota War of 1862, several of the early families left the area and never returned. The small village of Crow River was the only settlement of note in the township, in which the Jacobson Store at Crow River might be a well-known landmark. .

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Union Grove Township, 1867 to 1967

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1867Post officeThe Lake Lydia post office opens
  3. 1868Post officeThe Lake Lydia post office closes
  4. 1868Post officeThe Crow River post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1906Born hereFred Marshall is born here
  7. 1909Post officeThe Crow River post office closes
  8. 1967On 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

Union Grove Township on the map, 1967 to 1986

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

Union Grove Township on the 1967 USGS mapUnion Grove Township on the 1986 USGS map1967Lake Koronis 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 Union Grove Township.

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Paynesville TownshipIts storyCManannah TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townIrving TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townSwede Grove TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Union 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 Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.