Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 91 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1901 on, and the census since 1860.
Beallsville dates its founding to 1819 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1860.
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 Beallsville’s history is told.
The 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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Beallsville. 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 Beallsville.
From Wikipedia’s history of Beallsville.
A post office called Beallsville has been in operation since 1822. Beallsville was named for Zephaniah Bealle, a pioneer settler. The borough was incorporated in 1852.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Beallsville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
interest in these lands, with the elder and younger Beall, and in August, 1819, these four proprietors laid out on their property (a part of the " Clear Drinking"' tract) the town of Beallsville; the "charter" being dated on the 30th of that month. A few daj-s prior to that date the proprietors had published the following advertisement, viz. : f " BEALLSVILLE.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Beallsville Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1872, with two classes. The pastor over this charge in 1880 was the Rev. C. McCarlin ; class number one having sixty members, under S. W. Rodgers as class-leader, and class number two having a membership of sixty-nine, with Lemoyne Lewellen as classleader. The pastors who have served this church will be found mentioned in the history of Centreville
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
relies on his own judgment alone, never having admitted a partner. Mr. Hunter was the first contractor to start the building of the first Flynn road in Washington County, that being near Beallsville. Other large contracts may be mentioned and among these : the Franklin and Clearfield Railroad, where he put in 25,000 cubic yards of masonry ; the masonry work on the Wabash Railroad, near Middletown, Pa., and Hopedale, Ohio;
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
until he was about 20 years of age. He then went into the sawmill business and continued for about four or five years, when he learned the carpenter trade and worked four years with the Holder Brothers at Beallsville. By this time he was an excellent workman and after a short period spent at Waynesburg, he came to Washington, where he secured work at his trade with Julius Rush and later with J. W. Vester. After an association of three
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveBeallsville PA Presby Ch PHS41One decade in the archive so far: the 1920s. 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 Beallsville’s page.
Retake this view · +15Peaked at 604 in 1940; 393 people lived here in 2020.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Beallsville’s Wikipedia page.
Beallsville’s post office has been open since 1822.
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.
In 1819, according to Wikidata. Beallsville’s post office opened in 1822, and the census of 1860 counted 357 people here.
One place: the Beallsville Historic District (listed 1996).
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 (4), Wikidata (1), 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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