Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1942 on and the census since 1900.
The Elmer post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Mercyville (1867), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
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 Elmer’s history is told.
Peaked at 512 in 1910; 51 people lived here in 2020.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Elmer’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Elmer.
Elmer had its start in 1888 when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway was extended to that point.
A post office called Elmer has been in operation since 1889. On July 26, 2011, the U.S. Postal Service announced plans to permanently close the Elmer post office as part of a nationwide restructuring plan.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Elmer, cut from the printed page as they were published.
of government land five miles east of the present town of Elmer. He was one of the first settlers in that portion of the county, and his training as a woodsman and frontiersman in Kentucky stood him in good stead in his new home, for he had to encounter all the dangers and endure all the hardships and privations of frontier life there for many years. He converted his wild land into a good and fruitful farm and made of it a comfortable and valuable rural home, passed all his remaining years on it and finally died there at a good old age. He was
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
One of the men who has given them distinctive power and magnitude in the present day in Macon county is William T. Bailey, of Walnut township, who lives near the village of Elmer and carries on extensive operations in both farming, of a progressive cliaracter, and raising stock of superior quality. Mr. Bailey was l)orn at Elmer on November 12, 1864, and represents at least the second generation of his family native to the soil of Missouri. His father, Joseph Bailey, was born in Pike county and jiassed the greater part of his life there.
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.
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 Elmer. 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 Elmer.
Elmer’s post office has been open since 1889. Another post office, Mercyville, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Elmer post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 (1), 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.
2012