Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1902 on and the census since 2000.
The Elk Grove post office opened in 1831, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Bashford (1856), Meekers Grove (1857) and Ipswich (1886), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Elk Grove’s history is told.
Elk Grove had its own post office from 1831 to 1905. Three other post offices 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Elk Grove. 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 Elk Grove.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Elk Grove yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1831. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 551 to 566 (+3%).
Passages that mention Elk Grove, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The first settler in the town of Elk Grove was a Frenchman, who had located on Section 7 some time previous to 1827, this being the date of the arrival and settlement of a Mr, Collette and James C. Wright, who found the former and family here at that time, Mr, Collette and Mr, Wright located on the south half of the northeast quarter of Section 7, Immediately after locating his claim, Mr, Collette erected a log furnace for smelting, on the Fever or Galena River, with a double furnace, where he continued to reduce the mineral found on his and adjacent claims until 1835, when, the mineral having become exhausted, the smelting works wtre abandoned.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Trestrail; Treasurer, Francis Gough; Assessor, Rufus S. Crippen. During the years 1869 and 1870, the subject of attaching to Seymour parts of the towns of Elk Grove and Kendall was agitated and strongly advocated by the citizens of Seymour, but opposed by the citizens of Elk Grove and Kendall. No definite action was taken, however, until during the legislative session of 1871, when a bill was enacted authorizing the Board of County Commissioners to take such parts of other towns as would be necessary to enlarge Seymour to a town of thirty-six sections.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Between 463 and 566 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Elk Grove’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Elk Grove itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Elk Grove post office opened in 1831, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From 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.
