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–Not graded
History · Butternut

Butternut’s post office opened in 1877, and 31% of its homes were built before 1940

1877first post office
0on the National Register
31%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Photo: I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Butternut began

When was Butternut founded?

1877

The Butternut post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 366149 years
Founding year: the first Butternut post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Butternut’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Butternut are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Butternut’s homes were built before 1959.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Butternut’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Butternut’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Butternut, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Butternut yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Butternut is a village in Ashland County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 366 at the 2020 census.

Its first post office opened in 1877. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 375 to 366 (-2%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

By decade

Butternut, decade by decade

Today3 recent
Butternut Wisconsin Downtown Looking South WIS132012Butternut Wisconsin Downtown Looking South WIS13Butternut Wisconsin Downtown Looking South 2 WIS132012Butternut Wisconsin Downtown Looking South 2 WIS13Butternut Towers2012Butternut Towers
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

ChippewaIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townAgendaIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Butternut’s history

What year was Butternut founded?

The Butternut post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

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), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.