Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: old-book passages.
The Freetown post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Freetown Corners (1825), 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 Freetown’s history is told.
Freetown had its own post office from 1823 to 1850. Another post office, Freetown Corners, 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).
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
From Wikipedia’s history of Freetown.
Freetown was in the former Central New York Military Tract within a tract township called "Cincinnatus".
Freetown was formed from part of the town of Cincinnatus in 1818. In 1820, the town was increased in size by an addition from the town of Virgil.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Freetown, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The Christian community of the town of Freetown was thus organized for Christian work, worship and fellowship, substantially in the form which continues to this day. The two hamlets of East Freetown were provided wath chapels, and the village of Assonet was doubly provided. Some of the more notable facts in the external history of the church since this time may be thus briefly stated.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Captain Levi Rounseville who marched from Freetown with his company of minute men April 1!», 1775, was the father of the Rev. William Rounseville who represented the town of Freetown for ten successive years in the General Court at Boston, and great-grandfather of the Rev. William R. Alger, a noted author and divine. Lieutenant Nathaniel Morton of the same company was grandfather of Hon. Marcus Morton, formerly Governor of
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Freetown post office opened in 1823, 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 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.