Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 63% of U.S. towns · #565 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1893 on, and the census since 1890.
The Exeter post office opened in 1814, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1884.
More historic than 63% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Exeter is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #565 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
Pennsylvania towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Pennsylvania town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Exeter’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (25% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
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 Exeter’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Exeter. 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 Exeter.
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
Born hereAnn A. Bernatitus is born here
In the archiveOld Daniel Boone homestead, pioneer's birthplace in Pennsylvania, may be turned into muse…From Wikipedia’s history of Exeter.
The name Exeter derives from the ancient city of Exeter in Devon, England. Numerous other places in Canada and the United States have also been given the same name.
In 1769, settlers from Connecticut began making their homes in the Wyoming Valley of Northeastern Pennsylvania but came into conflict with settlers from Pennsylvania during the Pennamite–Yankee Wars.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Exeter, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Plymouth built two schoolhouses soon after the Revolution. Nanticoke was using a schoolhouse of logs in 1820 ; Dallas built a hewn-log schoolhouse in 1816; Exeter had a log schoolhouse before 1800, and long before had had a school maintained by township tax. In Plains a schoolhouse of round logs was built in 1818. In Newport township was a schoolhouse as early as 1803.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
To him the Susquehanna Company awarded a portion of what IS now the township of Kingston. The same group of Connecticut people had laid out the township of Exeter in 1762, and there John Jenkins settled with his family. This ancient tract is now within the borough limits ol West Pittston. He was the type of man to lead.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
return to Wyoming again until November or December, 1771. (See list of settlers, page 715.) As noted on page 717, he was voted a settling right in the new township of Lackawanna in December, 1771, and by the Spring of 1772 he was joined by his son Stephen, Jr. (See page 732.) When, in November, 1772. the township of Exeter was erected, as related on page 467, Vol. I, Stephen Harding and Stephen Harding, Jr., became proprietors in the same, and a year or two later removed thither. When the 24th Regiment, Connecticut Militia, was organized, Stephen Harding, Sr., was established and commissioned Captain of the 7th Company. (See page 857.) In May, 1778, Captain Harding was appointed and commissioned one of the Justices of the Peace in and for the county of Westmoreland for the ensuing year;
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Charles B. Sutton, Wilkes Barre, was liorn in Exeter township, this county, July 9, 1830, a sou of Samuel and Mary D. (Buckingham) Sutton, and is among the descendants of the first settlers of the AVyoming Valley. He was reared on the homestead in Exeter township, and at Kingston, until sixteen years of age; was educated at Wyoming Seminary, and in 1850, began his business life as clerk in a general store in Kingston, where he was employed three years. In 1853 he came to Wilkes-Barre and entered the store of his brother, James, as clerk, in which capacity he served until 1861. On September 2 of that year he enlisted as musician in the
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 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 Exeter’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 790 and 5,955 people in every census since 1890.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Exeter’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Exeter had its own post office from 1814 to 1907.
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.
The Exeter post office opened in 1814, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1884.
Exeter is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #565 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
22% of Exeter’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.8 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1968.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (3), 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.
Date?
Date?
Date?
2023
2017
2016
2011