Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the E.D. Fisher House. Its Register listing is the E.D. Fisher House. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1912 on, and the census since 1840.
The Bolivar post office opened in 1826, 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 Bolivar’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bolivar. 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 Bolivar.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
From Wikipedia’s history of Bolivar.
Shingas, a Delaware Indian leader, established a village known as Shingas Town in the general vicinity of present Bolivar in 1752. In 1778, Fort Laurens was built in this same area.
Bolivar itself was platted in 1830 as part of the growth occasioned by the development of the Ohio and Erie Canal. The community was named after Simón Bolívar.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Bolivar, cut from the printed page as they were published.
impossible, and in preference to returning to the Ohio without having accomplished anything, Gen. McIntosh built Fort Laurens on the Tuscarawas (named in honor of the then President of Congress, Henry Laurens), about a mile south of the present village of Bolivar, and after its completion left a garrison of 150 men under Col. John Gibson, to hold it until the next season, and serve to check Indian expeditions to the frontier, and with the main body of the troops he returned to Fort McIntosh. The garrison was as great as the almost exhausted supplies of the army would permit.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In 1828, John Mackin made an addition of fifty-one lots on Tuscarawas, Water and Cherry streets, which he called “The Weptern Liberties.” In 1835, David Yant made an addition of seventy seven lots on West Canal, Mulberry, Liberty, Yants. Bolivar and Harrison streets, west of the canal, and twenty four lots east of the canal; forty-eight of these lots were afterward vacated. East Bolivar, consisting of 251 lots, was laid out by John Short and others in 1837, east of the Tuscarawas and north of Sandy & Beaver Canal. A large town was evidently expected, but
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Bolivar’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Between 302 and 1,084 people in every census since 1840.
18 censuses, 1840–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bolivar’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Bolivar itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Bolivar post office opened in 1826, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the E.D. Fisher House (listed 1999).
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), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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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