Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1864.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Bonduel’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bonduel is more historic than 41% 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 Bonduel’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 Bonduel’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 B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.8 points). Two sources give 1853.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Bonduel’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
As founded, the community did not have an officially agreed upon name. Some early news reports called it Hartland Corners, presumably in reference to the surrounding town, named Hartland. The name Bonduel was not established for the community until an application for a post office was made in 1864, at which point "Hartland" was rejected as already being in use as a village name in Wisconsin. Therefore, the village was named Bonduel when the post office was created. The village is named after a Jesuit missionary, the Rev. Florimond Bonduel, who served Wisconsin parishes and who worked with the Menominee Indians, helping them settle on their newly created reservation in 1853.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Between 504 and 1,478 people in every census since 1920.
11 censuses, 1920–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bonduel’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Bonduel’s history
What year was Bonduel founded?
In 1853, according to Wikidata. Bonduel’s post office opened in 1864, and the census of 1920 counted 504 people here.
How does Bonduel rank for history?
Bonduel is more historic than 41% 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 Bonduel?
20% of Bonduel’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.8 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 (8), 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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