Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1913 on and the census since 1900.
The Alger post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Jagger (1823), 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 Alger’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Alger. 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 Alger.
From Wikipedia’s history of Alger.
Alger was established along the Chicago & Atlantic Railroad and the Ada & Round Head Turnpike, present SR-235. After the draining of the Scioto marsh. Alger was first called Jagger, and under the latter name was laid out in 1882 by Elias Jagger, and named for him. The present name is for Russell A. Alger, 20th Governor of Michigan. The village was incorporated in 1896.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Alger, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Curtis Avra Robinson. — The representative of a family that has been for many years intimately identified with the annals of Hardin county, Curtis Avra Robinson, of Cessna township, is also widely known as one of the upbuilders of the town of Alger, he and his father, the late James H. Robinson, having erected the first building in Alger, that is now occupied by the Phillips Hotel. They also established the first mercantile house in that place, conducting a general store there for eight years, while for seventeen years Curtis Avra Robinson owned and con-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
years, and he is still the owner of a farm in Marion township. lie took up his residence on his farm in that township on the 10th of January, 1892, and there he continued to live until 1903. when he moved to the village of Alger, where he is now successfully engaged in the real-estate and insurance business. Besides his farm in Marion township, near Alger, he is also the owner of a well improved farm of eighty acres in Allen county, this state. He has been enterprising and progressive as a farmer and business man and has not been denied a generous measure
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.
Between 462 and 1,071 people in every census since 1900.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Alger’s Wikipedia page.
Alger’s post office has been open since 1890. Another post office, Jagger, 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 Alger post office opened in 1890, 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 (6), 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.
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