Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1912 on, and the census since 1820.
The Rossie post office opened in 1827, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Shingle Creek (1828), Somerville (1828) and Wegatchie (1849), 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.
Rossie had its own post office from 1827 to 1960. Five 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Rossie’s history is told.
Peaked at 1,709 in 1880; 799 people lived here in 2020.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Rossie’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Rossie.
The town was formed in 1813 from a section of the Town of Russell.
During the War of 1812, residents constructed a block house in the southern part of Rossie.
The iron industry was important to the early town economy, and the Rossie Furnace of 1815 was the first to be built in northern New York. Lead mining was also important. The Rossie Shot Tower is still standing.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveRossie (Township); Rossie Business Directory.; Church's Mills Business Directory.; Church…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1860s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Rossie. 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 Rossie.
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 Rossie’s page.
Retake this view · +15Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Rossie post office opened in 1827, 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 (4), 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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