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History · Brookfield Township

Brookfield Township’s post office opened in 1860, and 17% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 9 old photos and papers, maps from 1946 on, and the census since 1870.

1860first post office
0on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
9old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Brookfield Township’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Brookfield Township began

When was Brookfield Township founded?

1860

The Brookfield Township post office opened in 1860, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 402 in 18702020 census: 4,735166 years
Founding year: the first Brookfield Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Brookfield Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Boom and bustPeaked at 6,428 in 1930; 4,111 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Brookfield Township’s homes were built before 1962.
★ What stands out · People over time

Brookfield Township, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,0004,5005,0005,5006,0006,5007,00018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 6,428

Peaked at 6,428 in 1930; 4,111 people lived here in 2020.

16 censuses, 1870–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Brookfield Township’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Brookfield Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Brookfield Township.

Read it all →

Brookfield was surveyed in 1859 by John Wood Brooks, a native of Boston. John Wood Brooks is further remembered by the names of four Brookfield streets: John, Wood, Brooks, and Boston streets. A post office called Brookfield has been in operation since 1860.

Brookfield was located along the first railroad built across the State of Missouri, completed by the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad on February 13, 1859. Passenger rail served the town for over a century. The last daytime train passed through the town on April 9, 1968, when the Kansas City Zephyr between Chicago and Kansas City was discontinued.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Brookfield Township, 1861 to 1946

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1861In the archiveLetter from George W. Wyckoff, Brookfield, Missouri, to Josephine Stanton, August 24, 1861
  3. 20th century
  4. 1909In the archiveElk's home
  5. 1910In the archivePark scene
  6. 1930CensusPopulation peaks at 6,428
  7. 1946On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Brookfield Township, decade by decade

3 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1860s1 item
Letter from George W. Wyckoff, Brookfield, Missouri, to Josephine Stanton, August 24, 18611861Letter from George W. Wyckoff, Brookfield, Missouri, …Document
1900s–1910s5 items
Elk's home1909Elk's homeN. Main St1909N. Main StPark scene1910Park sceneNew Francis Bldg. [building]1910New Francis Bldg. [building]Park oval, N. Main St1910Park oval, N. Main St
1920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Date unknown3 to date
Letter from George W. Wyckoff, Brookfield, Missouri, to Josephine Stanton, August 24, 1861Date?Letter from George W. Wyckoff, Brookfield, Missouri, …DocumentLetter from George W. Wyckoff, Brookfield, Missouri, to Josephine Stanton, August 24, 1861Date?Letter from George W. Wyckoff, Brookfield, Missouri, …DocumentLetter from George W. Wyckoff, Brookfield, Missouri, to Josephine Stanton, August 24, 1861Date?Letter from George W. Wyckoff, Brookfield, Missouri, …Document
Today1 recent
BNSF 1727 at Brookfield, Missouri on October 10, 20182018BNSF 1727 at Brookfield, Missouri on October 10, 2018
On the map

Brookfield Township on the map, 1946 to 1984

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

Brookfield Township on the 1946 USGS mapBrookfield Township on the 1984 USGS map1946Brookfield 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 Brookfield Township.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Elk's home
Retake this viewElk's home, 1909

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Brookfield Township’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Places now gone

Gone or out of use
General John J Pershing Memorial AirportairportHess SchoolschoolJohnson SchoolschoolMcClure SchoolschoolMoore SchoolschoolTroutman Airportairport

Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Brookfield Township’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo3 archive items have no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewElk's home: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Yellow Creek TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townJefferson Township3 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMarceline Township4 historic placesBYellow Creek TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLocust Creek Township2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Brookfield Township’s history

What year was Brookfield Township founded?

The Brookfield Township post office opened in 1860, 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 Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (5), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.