Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 64% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Friederich Kohlmann House and the Frederick Schumann Farmstead. Below: maps from 1907 on and old-book passages.
The Berry post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Marxville (1886), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 64% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Berry is more historic than 64% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Berry’s 17.8 sits above most of its state (81% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% 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 Berry’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Berry. 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 Berry.
From Wikipedia’s history of Berry.
The Town of Berry was established on January 7, 1850, by being split off from Farmersville. It was probably named for Berry Haney, who kept a tavern in the 1830s and was the first postmaster of the Cross Plains post office in 1838.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Berry, cut from the printed page as they were published.
corner of this county; is bounded on the north by the town of West Point, in Coliinibia couDty, on the east jby the towij of Dane, on the Bouth by the town of Berry, and on the west by the town of Mazomanie and the town of Prairie du Sac, in Sauk county. It is not quite a full township, the Wisconsin river cutting ott* the northwest corner of section six.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
tave Herring giving the land for the cemetery, and making the principle contribution toward paying for the building ; there are about forty families in connection, Charles Schenck being the Pastor; The Catholic Church of the Town of Berry. — The Catholic congregation was organized in 1853, and in that year a log church was built. Before that time, the people were sometimes visited by the Rev. Father Zuorna. On the 29th of October, 1854, Rev. L. Conrad was sent out by the M. R. Bishop as the first Presiding Pastor. The congregation then had twenty-five families. Together with the erection of the church, a Catholic German school was founded,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
conveniences, and perhaps could not be better told than to relate an incident that came imder my own observation. The nearest post-offieo was Madison, and letters for the town of Berry had to come over the Sauk road, by way of Mr. Dunlap's, then sometime afterwards it would be carried from there to Cross Plains, and then to Mr. Thomas, who was postmaster, on section 10. A friend and myself
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The Township of Berry is situated in the northwestern portion of the county, and was formerly a part of Springfield. It is known as township 8, north of range 7, east.
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.
BuiltFriederich Kohlmann House is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
2014Ballweg Family Farm - panoramio (1)
2013Town of Berry Marshland
2013S.B. Andersen Conservancy during Autumn - panoramio (…
2013Ice Age National Scenic Trail during Autumn - panoram…
2013Driftless Area - panoramio (8)
2013Dairy Farm in Dane County, Wisconsin - panoramio (2)
2013Broken Windmill - panoramio (1)
2013Bright White Barn and Silo
2013Black Earth Creek and Statz Farm
2013Black Earth Creek - panoramio (4)
2013Barman Family Farm
2013Austin Family Farm
2013Adam and Tina Danz Farmhouse
2013A.O. Smith Harvestore® System Wisconsin Dairies Addit…
2013A Distant Farm
2012St. John's Lutheran Church
2012Ice Age Trail National Scenic Trail - panoramio (2)
2012Farm on Hwy 19 with a Harvestore® Silo
2012Danz Family Farmstead (Was My Grandparents Farm)
2012Berry Town Hall
2012Ballweg Farm with Five Silos
2011Frederick Schumann Farmstead
2004WIMap-doton-BerryThe 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.
Nobody well known was born in Berry itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Berry had its own post office from 1851 to 1863. Another post office, Marxville, 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.
The Berry post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Berry is more historic than 64% 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.
Two places: the Friederich Kohlmann House (listed 1974) and the Frederick Schumann Farmstead (1993).
18% of Berry’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.6 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 (23), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, 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.
