Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1904 on and the census since 1820.
The Willet post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Willet’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1860 and 1930, then more than doubled.
20 censuses, 1820–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Willet’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Willet. 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 Willet.
From Wikipedia’s history of Willet.
Willet was within the former Central New York Military Tract. The area was first settled circa 1797.
Willet was created from a part of the town of Cincinnatus in 1818. In 1865, the population was 982.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Willet, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The first birth, in the town of Willet, was a child of Ebenezer Crittenden. The first marriage was that of Solomon Smith. This occurred in 1813.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
from the workings of mind around the nucleus of labor, progression pushed forward, expanded, absorbed, assimilated, and increased the embryonic town of Willet, until, in 1818, legislatively speaking, it was fully born, baptised, and named, although a feeble infant town, as being regarded in the legal freehold power.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
from the workings of mind around the nucleus of labor, progression pushed forward, expanded, absorbed, assimilated, and increased the embryonic town of Willet, until, in 1818, legislatively speaking, it was fully born, baptised, and named, although a feeble infant town, as being regarded in the legal freehold power.
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 SurveyWillet’s post office has been open since 1823.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Willet 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 Wikimedia Commons (3), 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.
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