Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1904 on, and the census since 1940.
Lincoln dates its founding to 1869 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1940.
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 Lincoln’s history is told.
Peaked at 1,885 in 1970; 932 people lived here in 2020.
9 censuses, 1940–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lincoln’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lincoln. 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 Lincoln.
From Wikipedia’s history of Lincoln.
The borough was named for Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was incorporated on February 6, 1958, before which it was Lincoln Township. The change in governmental structure came after a portion of the borough attempted to secede from Lincoln Township to annex with Liberty Borough. Dead Man's Hollow is a 450-acre conservation area whose boundary lies within the borough.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Lincoln, cut from the printed page as they were published.
"It was also at the Stover farm, when it was the property of Isaac and Mary Lincoln, that Thomas Lincoln, the father of Abraham Lincoln, worked for a while as a farmhand for his Uncle Isaac. (See Holland's Life of Lincoln, and Nicolay and Hay's Life of Lincoln.)
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Lincoln always regarded his famous rival. But chap.ix. we think that few men have ever lived who were more free from those degrading passions than Abraham Lincoln, and the personal reprobation with which he always visited the public acts of Douglas arose from his sincere conviction that, able as Douglas was, and in many respects admirable in character, he was essentially without fixed
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
Born hereSylvia Williams is born here
In the archivePOLLUTION SIGN AFFIXED TO THE DOOR OF A GASOLINE SERVICE STATION ACROSS THE MONONGAHELA R…One decade in the archive so far: the 1970s. 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 Lincoln’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Another post office, Belle Bridge, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1869, according to Wikidata. Lincoln’s post office opened in 1891, and the census of 1940 counted 1,015 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 (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.
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