The Bloomington post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Tafton (1855), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 365 in 18702020 census: 741159 years
Founding year: the first Bloomington post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Bloomington’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 Bloomington. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1900Lancaster sheet · 1:125,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bloomington.
The story so far
Bloomington, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bloomington yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Bloomington is a village in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 741 as of the 2020 census. The village is located within the Town of Bloomington.
Its first post office opened in 1867. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 735 in 2010, 741 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Bloomington, 1881–1900
Passages that mention Bloomington, cut from the printed page as they were published.
[History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin1881 · page 857Read the page →
Read the text
As has been seen, the town of Patch Grove was created by the Board of Supervisors at the special session held in 1848, and included, besides the present township of Patch Grove, the present township of Mount Hope, Woodman, Millville, Wyaiusing, and the greater part of the present township of Bloomington. The first township election was held at the old schoolhouse, noticed as still standing in the north part of the village, April 3, 1849. At the town meeting held the same day Hiram Bronson was elected Moderator or Chairman, and Thomas Nagle, Clerk.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
[History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin1881 · page 816Read the page →
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Tracy became Pastor at a salary of $400. Mr. Tracy first preached at Patch Grove and the " Red Schoolhouse " alternately, but afterward changed so as to include other points. In 1855, the question of erecting a church building was taken up and a site selected a mile and a half south of the present village of Bloomington. The congregation was aided by private subscriptions and supplies from the Congregational Building Fund, the cost of the buildinij: being $1,400. April, 1856, Rev. Mr. Tracy took his departure, going to Spring Valley, Minn., where he remained until his health failed. August of the same year Rev. A. M. Dixon commenced his pastorate, the church membership at this time being about fifty. During the nine
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Grant County Wisconsin1900 · page 622Read the page →
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About 1843 E. P. Finn, James M. Otis, and L. O. Shrader, bought eighty acres of land and laid out a town just above the present vil¬ lage. Mr. Finn had quite an experience in beginning towns. He was the first settler on the sites of the villages of' Bloomington and Patch Grove, and laid out the latter town, and was interested in the town of New Cincinnati on the Mississippi, a few’ miles below Wyalusing.
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
Bloomington, 1855 to 1980
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
2013