Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1905 on and the census since 1860.
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 Lewis’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1860 and 1940, then more than doubled.
16 censuses, 1860–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lewis’ Wikipedia page.
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia’s history of Lewis.
Settlement commenced circa 1800. Two families arrived in 1798, but left after approximately two years. Permanent settlers began appearing in 1799, and an influx of foreign settlers in 1831 helped populate the early town.
The town of Lewis was formed in 1852 from the towns of Leyden and West Turin.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Lewis, cut from the printed page as they were published.
There is, of course, no real confusion between this and Lewis’ river in Washington ; but the ungainly Indian names of the two which Lewis and Clark use are so similar, and both are so variously spelled, that some forms of the names of each have in fact been misprinted or otherwise misused for the other. See Clark’s map, 1814, where the Des Chutes (in Oregon) is inscribed To-war-nahe-ooks, and Lewis’ (in Washington), Chah-wah-na-hi-ooks, Lewis K 74 has “*Clark’s river ” for the Des Chutes, but with ‘*Towanahiooks” interlined with red ink. See note’, p. 657, and note '3, p, gg2, Thename Des Chutes is of course
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
But the first technical name, Antilope americana, was imposed by George Ord in 1815 (Guthrie's Geog., 2d Am. ed. II. PP. 292, 308), and a second, Antilocapra americana, was bestowed by the same naturalist in 1818, in the Bulletin de la Société Philomathique, P. 146; in both cases upon material furnished by Lewis and Clark. The figure given in Doughty's Cabinet of Natural History, II. p. 49, pl. 5, in 1833, was froma specimen of Lewis and Clark’s collecting, in Peale’s museum at Philadelphia. Our authors may, therefore, be credited with first mak.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lewis. 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 Lewis.
Nobody well known was born in Lewis itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
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, 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.
