Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Napoleon Buck House. Below: old-book passages.
The Waverly post office opened in 1841, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1845.
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 Waverly’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Waverly.
Waverly was founded in the 1840s. The community was named after Waverly, Illinois, the native home of an early settler. A post office called Waverly has been in operation since 1854.
The Napoleon Buck House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Waverly, cut from the printed page as they were published.
It was in 1817 that settlement was effected a few miles to the west of the present town of Waverly. Those who located there, to build homes for themselves, were Littleberry Estes, John Evans, a Mr. Hyde, a Mr. Russell and a few more whose names are now forgotten to the oldest inhabitant.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Waverly, as has been indicated, was at first called Middleton, and it was changed in 1850 to Waverly, when it was incorporated as a village. The petition for such incorporation was signed by Charles M. Cowan and thirty-four others, claiming to be more than two-thirds of the tax-payers of the village.
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.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Waverly post office opened in 1841, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1845.
One place: the Napoleon Buck House (listed 1997).
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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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