Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1855.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Cameron’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cameron is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns, #70 of 247 in Missouri. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Cameron’s overall grade.
Missouri towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Missouri town has 2.4 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cameron’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (23% of Missouri towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.7 points). Two sources give 1830.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Cameron’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
In 1854, Samuel McCorkle platted the town of Somerville. When the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad (a line whose founders included the father of Mark Twain and which was to deliver the first mail of the Pony Express) proposed coming through the area, the line claimed the area around Somerville was too steep for the rail, so he platted a new community 1.5 miles to the west in what is now Downtown Cameron just one year after the founding of Sommerville in 1855 . Since the Hannibal and St.Joseph Railroad Company could not come through Sommerville McCorkle had Judge Stokes and his son Edmund D. Stokes move all the buildings from Sommerville to the new town of Cameron that was named for the maiden name of his wife, Malinda Cameron. McCorkle Park is still Cameron's centerpiece park.
When Johnson was brought to Cameron most of the Cameron men returned, but the citizens of Kidder were still on the watch for Harpster, and on Sunday forenoon a number of them re-\'isited the Marpster farm and found their man at home, and arrested him without difllcult)'. bringing him to Cameron in the afternoon.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Section 13 provided for the holding of four terms of this court during the year, at some place in the town of Cameron, in each year, commencing on the third Mondaj-s of January. April. July and October, and he (the judge), may appoint and hold adjourned terms and special terms of said court in the same manner as is or may be provided by law in regard to circuit courts.
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.
By decade
Cameron, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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.
In 1830, according to Wikidata. Cameron’s post office opened in 1855, and the census of 1870 counted 1,428 people here.
How does Cameron rank for history?
Cameron is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns, #70 of 247 in Missouri. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Cameron?
29% of Cameron’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.7 points), against a typical 8.4% for a Missouri town; the median home was built in 1975.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (9), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
2023
2023
2007
2007
2007
2004
2003
