Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1916 on and the census since 1890.
The Dawson post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Dawson' Mills (1868), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Dawson’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Dawson.
Dawson was originally known as Noraville, and under the latter name was platted in 1872 when the Atchison and Nebraska Railroad was extended to that point. The name Noraville caused considerable strife among the town's residents, who insisted on calling their town Dawson, after Joshua Dawson, an early settler.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Peaked at 394 in 1940; 148 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Dawson’s Wikipedia page.
Passages that mention Dawson, cut from the printed page as they were published.
In 1868 Joshua Dawson built a mill on the present site of the Dawson mill and soon afterwards he succeeded in getting a government postoffice located at the mill. The postoffice was known as the Dawson Mills, and when the railroad was built the company named the station the same as the postoffice, only dropping the word, mill. The citizens a number of years ago had the town incorporated under the name of Dawson. Now history and the old settlers alone know of the original town of forty-four acres as Noraville.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The town of Dawson is well known to the people of Richardson county and yet, legally, there is no such a town in the county. But time and custom, together with popular usage, have got in their work and Dawson is as well known as Falls City, or Humboldt or Stella, and yet if a person went to the depot in Falls City and asked for a ticket to Noraville, Richardson county, Nebraska, the agent would tell them that there is no such a town on their lines. But the fact remains that the real name of Dawson is Noraville and it has never been legally changed.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Dawson. 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 Dawson.
Nobody well known was born in Dawson itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Dawson’s post office has been open since 1882. Another post office, Dawson' Mills, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Dawson post office opened in 1882, 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 Wikimedia Commons (4), 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.
2025
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