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B+History
History · Troy

Troy dates to 1819, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

More historic than 71% of U.S. towns · #65 of 247 in Missouri. What drives it

Most of Troy was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2000. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 39 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1895 on, and the census since 1860.

1819founded
1on the National Register
5%homes built before 1940
6old photos & papers
10famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Troy’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Troy began

When was Troy founded?

1819

Troy dates its founding to 1819 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1860.

First census: 611 in 18602020 census: 12,686207 years

How historic is Troy?

B+

More historic than 71% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1823.The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Troy’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Troy is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #65 of 247 in Missouri. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Troy’s overall grade.
Founding era1819, from Wikipedia: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA−Homes built before 19404.5% of homes (±2.9) · typical MO town 8.4% · U.S. 8.4%CNational Register1 listing, 39 historic buildings, 28.0 per 10,000 residents · typical MO town 2.4 · U.S. 2.4A−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 71%
NewerOlder
Missouri towns of 2,500+ (247)Ahead of 74%

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 Troy’s 28.0 sits above most of its state (83% of Missouri towns have fewer) while its 39 historic buildings outnumber those of 83% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A. The pre-1940 share (±2.9 points) is firm at this size. Two sources give 1819.

Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Troy’s past

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

A historic districtThe Downtown Troy Historic District takes in 39 historic buildings.Mapped building by building3 fire insurance maps, 1895 to 1913, drew every building in Troy.Deep rootsEstablished in 1819: 207 years of Troy.Famous sons and daughtersRichard Henry Norton, Wilson McCoy and 8 more were born here.
★ What stands out · On the National Register

1 listing protects 39 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
39
each building in a district counts
first listed
2013
Downtown Troy Historic District
Downtown Troy Historic District
Districts
Downtown Troy Historic DistrictDistrict

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Every building

Troy, building by building, 1895–1913

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.

Troy fire insurance map, 1895, sheet 11895Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Troy, 1819 to 1979

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1819
    FoundingTroy is established
  3. 1823Post officeThe Troy post office opens
  4. 1849Born hereRichard Henry Norton is born here
  5. 1883Born hereMay Bonfils Stanton is born here
  6. 20th century
  7. 1902Born hereWilson McCoy is born here
  8. 1923In the archiveTroy MO Presby PHS1036
  9. 1936In the archiveHandmade roller at farm. Cuivre River recreational demonstration project near Troy, Misso…
  10. 1941On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  11. 1979Born hereDennis Tankersley is born here
The story

How Troy came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Troy.

Read it all →

Troy was platted in 1819. Local historian Mrs. Guinn claimed the community was named after Troy, New York, while late-19th-century scholar Andy Brown believed the name came from Troy, Vermont. An early variant name was Woods Fort. A post office called Troy has been in operation since 1823.

Fort Cap au Gris, a War of 1812 fortification, was built near Troy in 1814. Mercy Hospital Lincoln was established in Troy in 1953 under the Hill-Burton Memorial Hospitals Act, as Lincoln County Memorial Hospital. Cuivre River State Park, one of the largest of Missouri's state parks, is about three miles northeast of Troy, across the Cuivre River valley.

ChaptersHistoric sites

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Troy in 1888

Passages that mention Troy, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Afterward, on the 15th day of May, 1877, a petition signed by E. N. Bonfils, George W. Colbert, A. B. Ellis and 110 others, was presented to the Court, asking for the incorporation of the town of Troy, with the following metes and bounds : "Beginning at the center of the public spring in said town …
History of Lincoln County, Missouri, from the earliest time to the present1888 · page 438Read the page →
Read the text

Afterward, on the 15th day of May, 1877, a petition signed by E. N. Bonfils, George W. Colbert, A. B. Ellis and 110 others, was presented to the Court, asking for the incorporation of the town of Troy, with the following metes and bounds : "Beginning at the center of the public spring in said town of Troy ; thence due north, south, east and west six hundred yards in each direction from said spring to points; thence to form a square upon said points of twelve hundred upon each side of said square." After consider-

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
willing to subscribe the sum of $55,000 to the capital stock of the St. Louis & Keokuk Railroad Company, provided that the company complete their road from the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northwestern Railroad to Troy, Mo., so as to give continuous connection by rail to St. Louis, on or before October…
History of Lincoln County, Missouri, from the earliest time to the present1888 · page 314Read the page →
Read the text

willing to subscribe the sum of $55,000 to the capital stock of the St. Louis & Keokuk Railroad Company, provided that the company complete their road from the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northwestern Railroad to Troy, Mo., so as to give continuous connection by rail to St. Louis, on or before October 1, 1875, and that the principal machine and repair shops of the road be located and built within eighty rods of the station grounds at Troy, and that one building of said shops be erected on or be-

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

Troy, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1920s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1920s–1930s5 items
Troy MO Presby PHS10361923Troy MO Presby PHS1036Handmade roller at farm. Cuivre River recreational demonstration project near Troy, Missouri1936Handmade roller at farm. Cuivre River recreational de…Hay crib used for storing fodder for feeding stock. Cuivre River recreational demonstration project near Troy. Missouri1936Hay crib used for storing fodder for feeding stock. C…Tool shed converted from old log house on Watson homestead. Cuivre River recreational project near Troy, Missouri1936Tool shed converted from old log house on Watson home…Tool shed converted from old log house on Watson homestead. Cuivre River recreational demonstration project near Troy, …1936Tool shed converted from old log house on Watson home…
1940s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
Date unknown1 to date
Worsham HouseDate?Worsham House
Today8 recent
Troy, Missouri2026Troy, MissouriTroy, MO Post Office2026Troy, MO Post OfficeMissouri Route 472026Missouri Route 47Michael Albert artist2026Michael Albert artistMercy Hospital2024Mercy HospitalTroy Missouri 20232023Troy Missouri 2023Troy Buchanan High School2023Troy Buchanan High SchoolJump-A-Roo's Large Bounce House in2021Jump-A-Roo's Large Bounce House in
On the map

Troy on the map, 1941 to 1982

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

Troy on the 1941 USGS mapTroy on the 1972 USGS mapTroy on the 1982 USGS map1941Troy 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 Troy.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Troy MO Presby PHS1036
Retake this viewTroy MO Presby PHS1036, 1923

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Troy’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Troy, census by census

02,0004,0006,0008,00010,00012,00014,00019001950200012,686

Grew from 611 people in 1860 to 12,686 in 2020, more than tenfold.

17 censuses, 1860–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Troy’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

10 famous people were born in Troy

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Richard Henry NortonAmerican politician · b. 1849
Wilson McCoyAmerican illustrator · b. 1902
D
Dennis TankersleyAmerican baseball player · b. 1979
M
May Bonfils StantonAmerican heiress and philanthropist · b. 1883
P
Pat ElzieAmerican-German basketball player and trainer · b. 1960
C
Clinton WatsonPolitician · b. 1888
Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Troy’s post office has been open since 1823.

Gone or out of use
Buchanan CollegeschoolDuff Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Troy
Troy City

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Troy’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewTroy MO Presby PHS1036: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Troy’s history

What year was Troy founded?

In 1819, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Troy’s post office opened in 1823, and the census of 1860 counted 611 people here.

How does Troy rank for history?

Troy is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #65 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.

What is on the National Register in Troy?

One place: the Downtown Troy Historic District (listed 2013).

How old are the homes in Troy?

5% of Troy’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.9 points), against a typical 8.4% for a Missouri town; the median home was built in 2000.

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
Start a conversation
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).

From Wikimedia Commons (9), the Library of Congress (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.