Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Estella

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Estella

Estella’s post office opened in 1886, and 18% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1951 on and the census since 1990.

1886first post office
0on the National Register
18%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Estella began

When was Estella founded?

1886

The Estella post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Martin (1898), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 449 in 19902020 census: 476140 years
Founding year: the first Estella post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Estella’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 Estella are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Estella’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Estella’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

How Estella came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Estella.

Read it all →

The six-mile blocks that would become Estella were first surveyed in 1847 by a crew working for the U.S. government. In 1852 a different crew marked all the section corners of the township, walking through the woods and wading the rivers, measuring with chain and compass. When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description of the six by six mile square which overlays most of the modern township:

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Estella, 1886 to 1951

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1886Post officeThe Estella post office opens
  3. 1898Post officeThe Martin post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1902Post officeThe Martin post office closes
  6. 1907Post officeThe Estella post office closes
  7. 1951On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Estella on the map, 1951 to 1980

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Estella. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Estella on the 1951 USGS mapEstella on the 1973 USGS mapEstella on the 1980 USGS map1951Cornell sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Estella.

People over time

Estella, census by census

010020030040050020002020Peak: 476

Between 433 and 476 people in every census since 1990.

4 censuses, 1990–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Estella’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Estella

Nobody well known was born in Estella itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Andy NorthAmerican golfer, PGA Tour member, U.S. Open cha… · b. 1950
G
Gary ReinekeCanadian actor · b. 1940
D
Dave CahillAmerican football player · b. 1941
Robert Whitney BurnsUnited States general · b. 1908
L
Larry KrauseAmerican football player · b. 1948
M
Mike MaslowskiAmerican football player · b. 1974
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Estella had its own post office from 1886 to 1907. Another post office, Martin, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Estella
1886–1907
Martin
1898–1902
18801950today
Gone or out of use
Enterprise SchoolschoolEstella SchoolschoolQuinn Pitmine
1cemetery inside Estella
Estella

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

ClevelandIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townColburnIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLake HolcombeIts storyCCornell1 historic placeB−Arthur1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townRubyIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Estella’s history

What year was Estella founded?

The Estella post office opened in 1886, 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 →
Start a conversation
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 Wikipedia, 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.