Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1915 on, and the census since 1830.
Brandon dates its founding to 1828 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1830.
Brandon was named after Brandon, Vermont, by early settlers.
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 Brandon’s history is told.
Brandon had its own post office from 1886 to 1906. Two other post offices 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).
Peaked at 938 in 1900; 577 people lived here in 2010.
19 censuses, 1830–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Brandon’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Brandon.
The town was settled by pioneers from Vermont. The town of Brandon was organized in 1828 from the town of Bangor. Subsequently, the town lost much of its area in the formation of the towns of Harrietstown and Santa Clara.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Brandon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
"Yes, that will be delightful. Master Brandon, will you dance with me ?" asked the princess, with a saucy little laugh, her invitation meaning so much more to three of us than to Brandon. Jane and I joined in the laugh, and when Mary clapped her hands that set Brandon off, too, for he thought it the quaintest, prettiest little gesture in the world, and was all unconscious that our laugh was at his
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Brandon, I believe, saw nothing of Mary's growing partiality at all. He could not help but find her wonderfully attractive and interesting, and perhaps it needed only the thought that she might love him, to kindle a flame in his own breast. But at the time of our ride to Windsor, Charles Brandon was not in love with Mary Tudor, however near it he may unconsciously have been. He would whistle
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.
In the archivePart of Brandon (Township)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Brandon.
1915Malone sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Brandon.
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 Brandon’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Brandon itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1828, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Brandon’s post office opened in 1886, and the census of 1830 counted 316 people here.
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 (1), 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.