Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Woodside Township

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Woodside Township

Woodside Township’s post office opened in 1882

Most of Woodside Township was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Below: maps from 1919 on.

1882first post office
0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Woodside Township began

When was Woodside Township founded?

1882

The Woodside Township post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Woodside (1882), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 512144 years
Founding year: the first Woodside Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Woodside 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 Woodside Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19193 editions of the USGS map, 1919 to 1984. Watch Woodside Township change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Woodside Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Woodside 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
On the map

Woodside Township on the map, 1919 to 1984

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

Woodside Township on the 1919 USGS mapWoodside Township on the 1966 USGS mapWoodside Township on the 1984 USGS map1919Valley sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Woodside Township.

The story so far

Woodside Township, in brief

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

Woodside Township is a township in Polk County, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the Grand Forks-ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 514 at the 2000 census. Woodside Township was organized in 1882, and named for the woods along the shore of Maple Lake.

Its first post office opened in 1882. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 505 in 2010, 512 in 2020.

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

Timeline

Woodside Township, 1882 to 1919

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1882Post officeThe Woodside post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1905Post officeThe Woodside post office closes
  5. 1919On 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.
Add from your album
Famous people

Famous people close to Woodside Township

Nobody well known was born in Woodside Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Jan NarvesonCanadian philosopher · b. 1936
A
Arlo BrunsbergAmerican baseball player · b. 1940
H
Hector Ames HansonAmerican politician – Minnesota -House 1941-44 … · b. 1904
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Another post office, Woodside, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Gone or out of use
Woodside Post Officepost office
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Woodside Township
Maple LakeRodnes

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.

Godfrey TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townKnute TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townGrove Park-Tilden TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townGarden TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Woodside Township’s history

What year was Woodside Township founded?

The Woodside Township post office opened in 1882, 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 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.