Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1940 on and the census since 1930.
The Arbyrd post office opened in 1911, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1919.
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 Arbyrd’s history is told.
Peaked at 704 in 1980; 404 people lived here in 2020.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Arbyrd’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Arbyrd.
A post office called Arbyrd has been in operation since 1911. The town's name is a contraction of A. R. Byrd, a land and cattle speculator from the St. Louis area who lived near San Antonio, Texas, at the time he purchased just over 4000 acres of mostly hardwood timber land just to the north of where the town was originally platted.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Arbyrd. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Arbyrd.
Nobody well known was born in Arbyrd itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Arbyrd post office opened in 1911, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1919.
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 Wikimedia Commons (5), 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.
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