Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1888 on and the census since 1880.
The Prairie Home post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Prairie Home’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Prairie Home. 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 Prairie Home.
From Wikipedia’s history of Prairie Home.
The town of Prairie Home was laid out in 1874 around the Prairie Home Institute, a school that had been built some time earlier. Prairie Home is a descriptive name, referring to its scenic setting on the prairie.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Prairie Home, cut from the printed page as they were published.
After his discharge from the army, Mr. Schilb returned to Cooper County, and the following year he bought his first farm of 95 acres near Guyers Ford, upon which he lived until 1877, when he sold out, and in 1878 he bought 110 acres of land in Prairie Home township, where he made his home until 1911, when he moved to his present place, and has since been living practically retired in the village of Prairie Home. Mr.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
ernment a tract of land in Prairie Home township upon coming here, and the west half of the plat of the town of Prairie Home covers a part of that land.
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Between 43 and 280 people in every census since 1880.
14 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Prairie Home’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Prairie Home itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Prairie Home post office opened in 1874, 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 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.
