The story
Read it all →How Masonville came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Masonville.
The town was formed in 1811 from the town of Sidney. It was named for the Rev. John M. Mason, a landholder.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
BHistory
History · Masonville
Masonville’s post office opened in 1812, and 22% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 59% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: maps from 1985 on and the census since 1820.
1812first post office
0on the National Register
22%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Quick answers
How Masonville began, and where its name came from
When was Masonville founded?
1812
The Masonville post office opened in 1812, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, East Masonville (1866), Whitman (1886) and Ivanhoe (1891), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 719 in 18202020 census: 1,239214 years
How did Masonville get its name?
Masonville was named for the Rev. John M. Mason, a landholder.
How historic is Masonville?
B
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 59% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Masonville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Name: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Masonville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Masonville is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Masonville’s overall grade.
Founding era1812, from the first post office: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA−Homes built before 194022.1% of homes (±6.1) · typical NY town 26.6% · U.S. 8.4%B+National RegisterNo listings counted · typical NY town 12.3 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 59%
NewerOlder
New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Masonville’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (10% of New York towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.1 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Masonville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost villages5 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Masonville, and 5 old place names are still on the map.A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Masonville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,738 in 1870; 1,239 people lived here in 2020.Deep rootsA post office since 1812: 214 years of Masonville.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Masonville’s post office has been open since 1812. Five other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Masonville
East Masonville
Whitman
Ivanhoe
Tacoma
Artic
18101920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
ArcticEast MasonvilleIvanhoeTacomaWhitman
Gone or out of use
Masonville QuarrymineSchool Number 6schoolSchool Number 8schoolStar Stone Quarriesmine
6cemeteries and burying grounds inside Masonville
Austin OlmstedBeach HillCamp BraceEast MasonvilleMasonvillePioneer
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Masonville’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Masonville’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.People over time
Masonville, census by census
Peaked at 1,738 in 1870; 1,239 people lived here in 2020.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Masonville’s Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Masonville, 1856–1914
Passages that mention Masonville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Delaware County, and border wars of New York, containing a sketch of the late anti-rent difficulties in Delaware..1856 · page 140Read the page →
Read the text
The location of the town of Sidney is in the north-west corner of the county, and its boundaries are thus enumerated : on the north by the Susquehanna, which separates it from Otsego } on the east by Franklin ; on the south by Masonville, and on the west by the town of Bainbridge, Chenango county. It was first organized in 1801, and derived its name from Sir Sidney Smith, a British admiral, who had gained much notoriety for his victories at that period. The author of this name
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.![Oscar Welliiian. who came West from New York in 1852, built the first house in Mason\illi' in ]8r)4, in wliicli lie kept hotel. He also had a stable for the public and I'oithe jiccoiunKiilation of the stage line that passed through here at that time. Masonville has a population of about three hundr…](https://images.townratings.com/story/28326/bk-a944303961f9956f-l.jpg)
History of Delaware County, Iowa, and its people1914Read the page →
Read the text
Oscar Welliiian. who came West from New York in 1852, built the first house in Mason\illi' in ]8r)4, in wliicli lie kept hotel. He also had a stable for the public and I'oithe jiccoiunKiilation of the stage line that passed through here at that time. Masonville has a population of about three hundred. It is surrounded by on(> of the richest grain and grass belts in this section of the state and is a station on I he Omaha Itranch of the Illinois Central Railroad. It has three general stores, a lumberyard, two implement houses, two elevators, a fai'mers' cooperative creamery, three churches, a savings bank and a public
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.
Timeline
Masonville, 1812 to 1985
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1812Post officeThe Masonville post office opens
- 1838Born hereJoseph T. Goodman is born here
- 1866Post officeThe East Masonville post office opens
- 1870CensusPopulation peaks at 1,738
- 1886Post officeThe Whitman post office opens
- 20th century
- 1912Post officeThe Whitman post office closes
- 1939Post officeThe East Masonville post office closes
- 1985
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your albumOn the map
Masonville on the map in 1985
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Masonville.
1985Binghamton sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Masonville.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Masonville’s history
What year was Masonville founded?
The Masonville post office opened in 1812, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Masonville rank for history?
Masonville is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Masonville?
22% of Masonville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.1 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1978.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
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).
From 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.