Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Andersonville was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1982. Below: maps from 1912 on and old-book passages.
The Andersonville post office opened in 1873, 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 Andersonville’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Andersonville. 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 Andersonville.
From Wikipedia’s history of Andersonville.
Andersonville was originally called Lewisville, and under the latter name was laid out in 1851 by Mahlon Anderson. A post office called Andersonville was established in 1873, and remained in operation until 1901. The community was a port town on the Ohio and Erie Canal.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Andersonville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
of the family in this county was grandfather Christopher Kline, a native of Pennsylvania and of early German ancestry. Coming to Ross County he located in Union Township, buying forty acres of land about a mile north of Andersonville. At that time Ross County had no convenient markets, since railroads had not yet been introduced. Corn raised on the farms could hardly be disposed of, and in view of these conditions, Christopher Kline established a distillery on his land, and operated it for a number of years, using his own corn and that of his neighbors.
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nobody well known was born in Andersonville itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Andersonville post office opened in 1873, 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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps 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.
