Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Doug Kerr · CC BY-SA 2.0Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1983 on, and the census since 1880.
Bendersville dates its founding to 1832 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1880.
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 Bendersville’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bendersville yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Bendersville is a borough in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 736 at the 2020 census.
Bendersville was established in 1832. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 641 to 736 (+15%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveWilliam Snyder House, Bendersville, PA - 1904-1918
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyPassages that mention Bendersville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
lie buried in the old cemetery at Williamsport, Penn. At the age of twelve years our subject began to work for himself, but, at fourteen, his father sent him to the Union Seminary, New Berlin, Union County, for one year. This, with the advantages of the common schools, When young, and one winter at Bendersville High School completed his studies. At the age of fifteen he became a clerk for Jacob Pitzer & Son, at Bendersville, Adams Co., Penn., with whom he remained eighteen months. Since then, with the exception of conducting a green grocery at Harrisburg for eighteen months, he has. been identified with the nursery business, cither selling or raising nursery stock. He is now the owner of the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
tober 6, 1882, and Benjamin F., born December 9, 1884. Our subject was brought up on his grandfather's farm, where he remained until he was sixteen years of age, when he commenced to learn the blacksmith’s trade, at which he worked for several years, He learned to run an engine and for a period conducted a stationary engine in Bendersville; subsequently he followed teaming, which occupation he left to enlist in Company G, One Hundea and Thirty-eighth Regiment. Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, in which he served three years as first sergeant, preferring that rank to a commission which was tendered him. Sergt. Wilson received a severe wound in the right hand from a rebel sharpshooter
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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2011Bendersville, PA Keystone MarkerThe U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bendersville.
1983Hagerstown sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bendersville.
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 Bendersville’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 331 people in 1880 to 736 in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bendersville’s Wikipedia page.
Bendersville’s post office has been open since 1850. Another post office, Wilsonville, 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).
In 1832, according to Wikidata. Bendersville’s post office opened in 1833, and the census of 1880 counted 331 people here.
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 (12), the Library of Congress (1), 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.
1907
1907