Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1913 on and the census since 1880.
The Edison post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Gilead Station (1874), 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 Edison’s history is told.
Peaked at 569 in 1970; 422 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Edison’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Edison.
Edison was formerly called Gilead Station, and later Levering. The present name is for American inventor Thomas Alva Edison. A post office called Gilead Station was established in 1874, and the name was changed to Edison in 1881.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Edison, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Before the building of the Short Line, the little town which is now its western terminus, was known as Gilead Station. After the road got into operation, its name was changed to Levering, and later still to Edison. Edison is now a place of 387 inhabitants, according to the last census. It has a hotel, a church, a bank, an ice-cream manufactory, a store, a grocery, etc. Its prosperity is due to its location at the crossing of the roads above mentioned.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The inception of the design of a press operated on the hydraulic or hydrostatic principle for cider making purposes was in the mind of Mr. A. Q. Tucker during the year of 1867, who then lived on his farm adjoining the village of Gilead Station, now Edison, Ohio. The first conception of a hydraulic cider press originated with Mr. Tucker while engaged in the excessively hard labor of expressing cider on a screw press, in the autumn of the year named.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Edison. 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 Edison.
Nobody well known was born in Edison itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Edison’s post office has been open since 1881. Another post office, Gilead Station, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Edison post office opened in 1881, 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 (8), 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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