Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1966 on, and the census since 1890.
The Dodge post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name.
Dodge was named for George A. Dodge, a pioneer settler.
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 Dodge’s history is told.
Peaked at 815 in 1980; 611 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Dodge’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Dodge.
Dodge was platted in 1886 when the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad was extended to that point. It was named for George A. Dodge, a pioneer settler. Dodge was incorporated as a village in 1887.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Dodge, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Albert Johnson, of section 19, township 17, range 9, came to Dodge County in the fall of 1857 and made a settlement and later became prominent in the development of his part of Dodge County. He worked at the carpenter's trade in New York until 1877, then had made enough to come back and make the desired improvements on his land in this township.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
left at home Doctor Abbott had the following in his history : "The first Territorial Legislature convened at Omaha on January 16, 1855, and while Messrs. Clark, Robinson and Doyle were attending the legislature, the Town of Fontenelle and the county of Dodge were deserted by their inhabitants until Col. William Kline, then and later a respected citizen of Fontenelle, and a half breed Indian named Jo, were the only constituents left to the honorable members of Dodge. Colonel Kline can truly be said to have had at one time in his life the largest
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Dodge. 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 Dodge.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Dodge’s page.
Retake this view · +15Dodge’s post office has been open since 1880.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Dodge post office opened in 1880, 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 (5), the Library of Congress (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 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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