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–Not graded
History · Terry

Terry’s post office opened in 1882, and 23% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Grandey Elementary School. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1910 on, and the census since 1920.

1882first post office
1on the National Register
23%homes built before 1940
12old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Terry’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Terry began

When was Terry founded?

1882

The Terry post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1884.

First census: 794 in 19202020 census: 562144 years
Founding year: the first Terry post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1884.The full story ↓

What stands out about Terry’s past

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

Boom and bustPeaked at 1,191 in 1950; 562 people lived here in 2020.A town in old photos12 old photos, postcards and papers, 1910–1939.Mapped building by building3 fire insurance maps, 1910 to 1920, drew every building in Terry.Old housesHalf of Terry’s homes were built before 1956.
★ What stands out · People over time

Terry, census by census

02004006008001,0001,200192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,191

Peaked at 1,191 in 1950; 562 people lived here in 2020.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

By decade

Terry, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s–1930s12 items
Ec on horse11910Ec on horse1Corn withered by the heat and chewed by grasshoppers, 8b280621936Corn withered by the heat and chewed by grasshoppers,…Corn withered by the heat and chewed by grasshoppers, 8b280621936Corn withered by the heat and chewed by grasshoppers,…Corn withered by heat and chewed by grasshoppers. Terry, Montana1936Corn withered by heat and chewed by grasshoppers. Ter…Corn withered by heat and chewed by grasshoppers. Terry, Montana1936Corn withered by heat and chewed by grasshoppers. Ter…Corn withered by the heat and chewed by grasshoppers. Terry, Montana1936Corn withered by the heat and chewed by grasshoppers.…Fire1939FireVolunteer fire department in action1939Volunteer fire department in actionUntitled photo, possibly related to: Fire1939Untitled photo, possibly related to: FireUntitled photo, possibly related to: Fire1939Untitled photo, possibly related to: FireUntitled photo, possibly related to: Fire1939Untitled photo, possibly related to: FireUntitled photo, possibly related to: Fire1939Untitled photo, possibly related to: Fire
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
Every building

Terry, building by building, 1910–1920

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.

Terry fire insurance map, 1910, sheet 11910Sheet 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.

The story

How Terry came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Terry.

Read it all →

The site where Terry is located was first called Joubert's Landing, in recognition of the man who built a supply point along the Yellowstone River for freighters traveling from Bismarck, Dakota Territory, to Miles City, Montana Territory. When the Northern Pacific Railway's transcontinental rail line arrived in 1881, the town was renamed for Alfred Howe Terry, a general in the Union Army who commanded an 1876 expedition in connection with George Armstrong Custer’s campaign against Native Americans, specifically in the west.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Terry, 1882 to 1972

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1882Post officeThe Terry post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1910In the archiveEc on horse1
  5. 1936In the archiveCorn withered by the heat and chewed by grasshoppers, 8b28062
  6. 1942Born hereNorm Clarke is born here
  7. 1950CensusPopulation peaks at 1,191
  8. 1972On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
On the map

Terry on the map, 1972 to 1980

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

Terry on the 1972 USGS mapTerry on the 1980 USGS map1972Terry sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Terry.

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.

Ec on horse1
Retake this viewEc on horse1, 1910

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Terry

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1978
Grandey Elementary School
Grandey Elementary School
Buildings
Grandey Elementary SchoolBuilding

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

Places that used to be

Places now gone

Terry’s post office has been open since 1882.

Gone or out of use
Prairie Grain and Seed Incorporated Elevatorlocale

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

Help out

Finish Terry’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.
Retake an old viewEc on horse1: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Terry’s history

What year was Terry founded?

The Terry post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1884.

What is on the National Register in Terry?

One place: the Grandey Elementary School (listed 1978).

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (3), the Library of Congress (9), 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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.