Founding year: the first Anna post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Anna’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Anna is more historic than 64% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Anna’s overall grade.
Ohio towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Ohio town has 2.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Anna’s 5.9 sits above most of its state (66% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 (±11.2 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 Anna’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The prehistoric Teays River ran through modern-day Anna about 2 million years ago. The Teays river deposited loose sediment on the Greenville fault line which created a major earthquake center.
According to the Native Americans, Tecumseh tried to start his alliances in what is now Anna. Most native Shawnee and Miami tribes refused the offer. He supposedly put a curse on the land. The curse stated that the land would be ever plagued with the trembling of the earth.
The first white settlement at Anna was made in the 1830s. Anna was platted in 1868, and named for Anna Thirkield. The village was incorporated in 1877.
Passages that mention Anna, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Shelby County, Ohio1913 · page 760Read the page →
Read the text
telegraphy and later continued at Edgerton, O. On October 14, 1901, lie went to work for the Chicago & Northwestern railroad at Bertram, la., being then transferred to Des Moines, and in all spent two years in Iowa, coming then to Anna, O., and in 1903 Went to work for the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, continuing with them at Lima, Troy and Tippecanoe City. For six years he was with the Big Four railroad, at Sidney, and was also agent at Sidney from July 10, 1909, to January 12, 1910; cashier for the Big Four until June 30, 191 1, and from July to December 15, 191 1, was train dispatcher
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
Anna, 1858 to 1913
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
People over time
Anna, census by census
Between 266 and 1,567 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Anna’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Anna’s history
What year was Anna founded?
The Anna post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Anna rank for history?
Anna is more historic than 64% 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.
What is on the National Register in Anna?
One place: the Anna Town Hall (listed 1978).
How old are the homes in Anna?
26% of Anna’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±11.2 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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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