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History · Tupelo

Tupelo’s post office opened in 1904

Most of Tupelo was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1974. Below: maps from 1966 on and the census since 1950.

1904first post office
0on the National Register
5%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Tupelo began

When was Tupelo founded?

1904

The Tupelo post office opened in 1904, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 376 in 19502020 census: 327122 years
Founding year: the first Tupelo post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Tupelo’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 Tupelo are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 542 in 1980; 327 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Tupelo’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Tupelo’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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People over time

Tupelo, census by census

01002003004005006001960198020002020Peak: 542

Peaked at 542 in 1980; 327 people lived here in 2020.

8 censuses, 1950–2020.

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

The story

How Tupelo came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Tupelo.

Read it all →

A post office opened at Jeffs, Indian Territory on June 28, 1894. It moved to the present site of Tupelo on October 25, 1900, and its name changed to Tupelo, Indian Territory on January 13, 1904. Jeffs took its name from Jefferson D. Perry, first postmaster. Tupelo was named for Tupelo, Mississippi, which itself was named for the tupelo gum tree.

At the time of their founding, Jeffs, and later Tupelo, were located in Atoka County, a part of the Pushmataha District of the Choctaw Nation.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Tupelo, 1904 to 1980

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1904Post officeThe Tupelo post office opens
  3. 1966On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 542
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

Tupelo on the map, 1966 to 1993

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

Tupelo on the 1966 USGS mapTupelo on the 1993 USGS map1966Tupelo sheet · 1:24,000

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

Questions about Tupelo’s history

What year was Tupelo founded?

The Tupelo post office opened in 1904, 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, 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.