Founding year: the first Carterville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Carterville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Carterville is more historic than 39% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Carterville’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 Carterville’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 B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.1 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (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 Carterville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
While one James Carter settled in Jasper County in 1841, the land on which Carterville was built was originally owned by his son, James Gilbert Leroy Carter, who created a farm in the 1860’s. The town considers itself founded in 1875, when a post office called Carterville opened that year. However, the settlement was not officially incorporated until 1882. Early Carterville was little more than a lead-mining camp, one of many in the tri-state mining district in southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas and northwestern Oklahoma. It nevertheless thrived, and at one time had a population of over 12,000 residents, making it larger than nearby Webb City.
Passages that mention Carterville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people1912 · page 220Read the page →
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Mr. Daugherty secured land from Mr. Carter and platted a town, the field notes and plat being filed for record September 10, 1875. He also built the first store in Carterville. Two additions to the place were laid out in the spring of 1876, and by the close of the Centennial year the town numbered fully five hundred inhabitants.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The history of Jasper county, Missouri1883 · page 613Read the page →
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Carterville. — The prosperous and rising City of Carterville is situated just east of and adjoining Webb City, and about midway betweeu Joplin and Carthage. It is on the lines of the Mo. P. and the K. C, Ft. S. & G.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The history of Jasper county, Missouri1883 · page 614Read the page →
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Its development has been truly wonderful, more so than that of its rival on the opposite hill. The plat of the town of Carterville was surveyed by Elijah Lloyd, in August, 1875, and recorded by L. E. Steinmetz, deputy recorder, Sept. 10, 1875. The first addition to Carterville was surveyed by John W. Irwin, deputy county surveyor, in May, 1876, and was recorded June 24, 1876. South Carterville Mining and Smelting Company's second addition to Carterville was surveyed April 7, 18 80, b}' Elijah Lloyd, and recorded Dec. 9, 1880. Luscomb's addition to Carterville was surveyed
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people1912 · page 219Read the page →
Read the text
The land on which the original town of Carterville was built belonged to a farmer named Carter, who was a neighbor of Mr. Jno. C. Webb and who, with him, tilled the soil during the early 'seventies.
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
Carterville, 1875 to 1910
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Carterville post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Carterville rank for history?
Carterville is more historic than 39% of U.S. towns. 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 Carterville?
20% of Carterville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.1 points), against a typical 8.4% for a Missouri town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 (4), 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 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.
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