Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: old-book passages.
The Wilmington Township post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Wilmington (1861), Nittidal (1890) and Bee (1891), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Wilmington Township’s history is told.
Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Wilmington Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1861. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 434 in 2010, 427 in 2020.
Passages that mention Wilmington Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
District No. 66, Wilmington Township. This was in 1866 set off from District No. 59,lEt schoolhouse was soon erected on section 24, and was first taught by Ellen H. Cass.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Portland Prairie was the first part of the town settled. The locality known by this name, however, lies only partly in Wilmington Township, a part of it being in Winnebago Township, and a part extending across the state line into Iowa. The county records show that the ownership of the prairie farms, for a dozen years or so from the first settlement, frequently changed hands. The Germans and Scandinavians were appearing to take up the remaining vacant lands, or purchase of the Americans who desired to sell their improvements. Like most frontier places, the first
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nobody well known was born in Wilmington Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Wilmington Township post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 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.