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History · New Wells

New Wells’ post office opened in 1867

Below: maps from 1925 on.

1867first post office
0on the National Register
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Quick answers

How New Wells began

When was New Wells founded?

1867

The New Wells post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 40159 years
Founding year: the first New Wells post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about New Wells’ past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of New Wells are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start New Wells’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how New Wells’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How New Wells came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of New Wells.

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Johannisberg was one of the seven colonies established in 1839 in the Saxon Migration to Perry County, Missouri. Johannisberg is said to have been an offshoot of the Dresden settlement. In May 1840, the members of the New York group of Saxon migrants who had arrived in December 1839, and who had been members of C. F. W. Walther's congregation at Dresden, branched off and founded a village seven miles (11 km) away in Cape Girardeau County. It is thought the split was caused by a quarrel over the sale of lots at Wittenberg to the general public. Members of the New York group violently opposed this move, which was proposed because of the failure of Wittenberg to grow as fast as had been hoped. They severed financial connections with the community, and withdrew into a separate settlement, although they continued other connections with the Saxons. Walther continued to serve both Dresden and …

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

New Wells on the map, 1925 to 1947

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

New Wells on the 1925 USGS mapNew Wells on the 1947 USGS map1925Altenburg 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 New Wells.

Famous people

Famous people close to New Wells

Nobody well known was born in New Wells itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

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Rush LimbaughAmerican political commentator · b. 1951
Linda M. GodwinAmerican astronaut · b. 1952
Roy ThomasAmerican comic book writer and editor · b. 1940
D
Dale DyeAmerican actor, presenter, and businessman · b. 1944
Terry JonesAmerican anti-Islamic right wing activist and t… · b. 1951
B
Billy SwanAmerican musician and songwriter · b. 1942

Questions about New Wells’ history

What year was New Wells founded?

The New Wells post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

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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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.