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History · Amenia

Amenia’s post office opened in 1880, and 36% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1967 on and the census since 1930.

1880first post office
0on the National Register
36%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Andrew Filer · CC BY-SA 2.0
Quick answers

How Amenia began

When was Amenia founded?

1880

The Amenia post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 90 in 19302020 census: 85146 years
Founding year: the first Amenia post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Amenia’s 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 Amenia are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 127 in 1950; 85 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Amenia’s homes were built before 1961.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Amenia’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Amenia’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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People over time

Amenia, census by census

010019401960198020002020Peak: 127

Peaked at 127 in 1950; 85 people lived here in 2020.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

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

The story

How Amenia came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Amenia.

Read it all →

Amenia was founded in 1880. The town of Amenia traces its roots to a group of wealthy New England investors from the villages of Amenia, New York and Sharon, Connecticut which formed the Amenia and Sharon Land Company and, in July 1875, under the representation of Eben W. Chaffee, purchased 27,832 acres (11,263 ha) of land from the then bankrupt Northern Pacific Railroad. The stockholders' plan had been to develop the land enough to sell it to settlers, thus quickly realizing a return on the investors shares. However, taking notice of the success of the Cass-Cheney-Dalrymple bonanza farm near Casselton, and the exceptional fertility of the soil, Chaffee convinced the stockholders to hold the land and break the prairie sod for the production of wheat. The company built a depot and, in 1881, a grain elevator in order to move their product to market. Around them grew the village of Amenia.…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Amenia, 1880 to 1967

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1880Post officeThe Amenia post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1950CensusPopulation peaks at 127
  5. 1967On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Amenia, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Amenia2013AmeniaAmenia, North Dakota2006Amenia, North Dakota
On the map

Amenia on the map in 1967

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Amenia.

Amenia on the 1967 USGS map1967Arthur 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 Amenia.

Questions about Amenia’s history

What year was Amenia founded?

The Amenia post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
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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 Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.