Founding year: the first Angelo post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Angelo’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Angelo is more historic than 29% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Angelo’s overall grade.
Wisconsin towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Wisconsin town has 3.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Angelo’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Angelo’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Angelo. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1909Sparta sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Angelo.
The story so far
Angelo, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Angelo yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Angelo is a town in Monroe County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,697 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated community of Farmers Valley is also located partially in the town.
Its first post office opened in 1855. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,296 to 1,697 (+31%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Angelo in 1912
Passages that mention Angelo, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Monroe County Wisconsin1912 · page 776Read the page →
Read the text
He first located in Angelo township, near Sparta, where he remained one year, then went to Minnesota. After a short time he returned to Monroe county and located in Leon township, remaining there two years, and then moved to the town of Wells and spent two more years, and again returned to Leon and spent two years; thence to the town of Angelo, locating on his present farm, eighty acres of which lies in section thirty-four, Angelo, and 157 acres in section three, Wells township, in 1901. In 1905
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Monroe County Wisconsin1912 · page 524Read the page →
Read the text
The story of the race between a man by the name of Searl and Dr. Seth Angle to the land office in Mineral Point to locate the present site of the village of * Athens," in the town of Angelo, has already been told. Angle eame out ahead by one hour and loeated the land upon which the water power was situated and proeeeded to ereet a sawmill, which at that time was the only one in this part of the country except the one erected by Esau Johnson in the southern part. of the county, on the Kickapoo,
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.
Timeline
Angelo, 1855 to 1909
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Angelo post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Angelo rank for history?
Angelo is more historic than 29% of U.S. towns. 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.
How old are the homes in Angelo?
10% of Angelo’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.2 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1996.
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 U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
