The story
Read it all →How Woodstock came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Woodstock.
Two members of the village were directly involved in the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
–Not graded
History · Woodstock
Woodstock’s post office opened in 1837, and 55% of its homes were built before 1940
Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1914 on, and the census since 1880.
1837first post office
0on the National Register
55%homes built before 1940
4old photos & papers
1famous people
Quick answers
How Woodstock began
When was Woodstock founded?
1837
The Woodstock post office opened in 1837, the earliest record of the town by name.
First census: 383 in 18802020 census: 287189 years
Founding year: the first Woodstock post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Woodstock’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
A history waiting to be writtenOnly 4 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Woodstock’s homes were built before 1938.On the map since 19144 editions of the USGS map, 1914 to 1973. Watch Woodstock change.Deep rootsA post office since 1837: 189 years of Woodstock.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Woodstock’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Woodstock’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.On the map
Woodstock on the map, 1914 to 1973
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Woodstock. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1914Mechanicsburg sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Woodstock.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Woodstock in 1907
Passages that mention Woodstock, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Woodstock1907Read the page →
Read the text
In the year 1832, the village of Woodstock was laid out by Sylvanus and Phoebe Smith. Sylvanus Smith owning the northwest corner, and Phoebe Smith the north-east corner, B. D. Sibley the south-east corner, and Isaac Marsh the south-west corner.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Woodstock1907Read the page →
Read the text
It was my express purpose when I commenced noting down a few events in the first settling of the colony where the village of Woodstock now is situated, to be confined exclusively to the territory now comprising that school district; but as there were some twenty families, all but two who came from “ Yankee Land” and settled just outside of the boundary line of that district, making a colony here of seven or ’eight thousand acres planted with “Blue blood Yankees, ”(it was called and known throughout
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
Woodstock, 1837 to 1938
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
Woodstock, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1930s4 items
1938
1938
19381940s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
2016
2016
2016
2016
2016
2016
2015
2004Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewBarn and silo in central Ohio, 1938
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Woodstock’s page.
Retake this view · +15People over time
Woodstock, census by census
Between 263 and 383 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Woodstock’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Woodstock’s history
What year was Woodstock founded?
The Woodstock post office opened in 1837, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
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), the Library of Congress (4), 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.