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History · Zumbro Township

24% of Zumbro Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: old-book passages.

0on the National Register
24%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about Zumbro 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 Zumbro Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Zumbro Township, and 2 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Zumbro Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Zumbro Township’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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Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Pleasant Prairie
1857–1864
South Troy
1858–1903
Bremen
1872–1888
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
BremenSouth Troy
Gone or out of use
Bremen Post Officepost officeSouth Troy Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Zumbro Township
Pleasant Prairie

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

The story so far

Zumbro Township, in brief

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

Zumbro Township is a township in Wabasha County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 715 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated community of South Troy is in Zumbro Township. Zumbro Township was organized in 1861, and named after the Zumbro River.

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 722 to 642 (-11%).

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

From the old history books

What they wrote about Zumbro Township in 1920

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

Zumbro Township embraces all of Township 109, Range 13, south of the Zumbro River, and all of Township 109, Range 14, south of the Zumbro River and east of the south branch thereof. The first settlers in this town— at that time Concord — were the Baileys, Thomas, George and Andrew, who came in the …
History of Wabasha County, Minnesota1920 · page 112Read the page →
Read the text

Zumbro Township embraces all of Township 109, Range 13, south of the Zumbro River, and all of Township 109, Range 14, south of the Zumbro River and east of the south branch thereof. The first settlers in this town— at that time Concord — were the Baileys, Thomas, George and Andrew, who came in the early part of 1855, and followed some time in the summer of 1856 by the Jen¬ kins family, father and two sons, and a Mr. Baker.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
and Mary A. (Denison) Pencille. He was educated in the district school and worked for his father until 1890, wdien he started in for himself, having in the previous year bought 140 acres in section 30, Zumbro Township. Enterprising and industrious, he bent all his energies to the work of improving …
History of Wabasha County, Minnesota1920 · page 748Read the page →
Read the text

and Mary A. (Denison) Pencille. He was educated in the district school and worked for his father until 1890, wdien he started in for himself, having in the previous year bought 140 acres in section 30, Zumbro Township. Enterprising and industrious, he bent all his energies to the work of improving his position in life, and to that end from time to time bought more land, about 1895 purchas¬ ing 120 acres in section 25, and later 80 acres in section 36, thereby increasing the area of his possessions to 400 acres, all in Zumbro Township. In addition to general farming and stock raising, he worked at the blacksmith’s trade, and

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

Zumbro Township, 1857 to 1903

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1857Post officeThe Pleasant Prairie post office opens
  3. 1858Post officeThe South Troy post office opens
  4. 1864Post officeThe Pleasant Prairie post office closes
  5. 1872Post officeThe Bremen post office opens
  6. 1888Post officeThe Bremen post office closes
  7. 20th century
  8. 1903Post officeThe South Troy post office closes
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.

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Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Mazeppa Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townHyde Park TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townHammondIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townZumbro Falls2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townOakwood TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Zumbro Township’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

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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 Wikidata (1), 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.