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History · Loyal

Loyal’s post office opened in 1918

Most of Loyal was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1982. Below: maps from 1893 on and the census since 1940.

1918first post office
0on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Quick answers

How Loyal began

When was Loyal founded?

1918

The Loyal post office opened in 1918, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 177 in 19402020 census: 71108 years
Founding year: the first Loyal post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Loyal’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Loyal are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Loyal’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Loyal’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Loyal came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Loyal.

Read it all →

A large share of the early settlers being natives of Germany, the original name of the settlement was "Kiel", after the city in northern Germany. In 1917 following American entry into World War I, the name was changed to "Loyal" due to rampant anti-German sentiment. Some direct descendants of Johann Sebastian Bach lived in Loyal, through his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and his illegitimate grandchild. The street Friedemann Avenue is named after this family.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Loyal, 1893 to 1918

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1893On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  3. 20th century
  4. 1913Born hereAl Brazle is born here
  5. 1918Post officeThe Loyal post office opens
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Loyal on the map, 1893 to 1972

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Loyal. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Loyal on the 1893 USGS mapLoyal on the 1972 USGS map1893Omega sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Loyal.

People over time

Loyal, census by census

010019401960198020002020Peak: 177

Between 71 and 177 people in every census since 1940.

9 censuses, 1940–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Loyal’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Loyal’s history

What year was Loyal founded?

The Loyal post office opened in 1918, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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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 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.