Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
4 places in town are on the National Register. Below: maps from 1891 on and the census since 1920.
The Footville post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Bachelor's Grove (1846), 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 Footville’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Footville. 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 Footville.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Footville.
Footville was originally called Bachelor's Grove. The present name is for Ezra A. Foot, the original owner of the townsite. A post office was established as Bachelor's Grove in 1846 and renamed Footville in 1855.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Footville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The cemetery, which is located in the town of Center, is used equally by the residents of the village of Footville and the town of Center ; but the control of it is vested in an association, all of whose members live in the latter place. It was laid out in 1847, and is well cared for.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
in June, 1845, by Mr. E. A. Foot, from whom it derives its name, he settling on a piece of ground opposite his present habitation. For some time he lived in a small log house, but finally erected a gravel building just across the town line, so that while de jure he is a resident of the village of Footville, in the town of Plymouth, de facto he is one of the inhabitants of the town of Center. He was followed in the fall of the same year by Mr. E. F. Richards, who located near Mr. Foot. With the exception of two other persons who moved in and built at a somewhat later date, this constituted the village of Footville until 1854, when the Galena & Chicago Union, as the C. & N.-W. Railway was then called, became an established fact, then, as
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
$1 per day to $1.50, according to muscle. Grain was cut with cradles. A good man and team got from $1.25 to $1.50 a day and board yourself. The Beloit & Madison railroad was graded in 1854 to Footville. I put on that road 20,000 ties between Beloit and Afton. The Eacine & Mississippi railroad, now the Western Union, was graded in 1856 and I delivered 20,000 ties for that road from Porter to Eoekton. When Beloit was organized as a
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.
BuiltSoloman J. Strang House is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyBuiltFootville State Bank is builtBuiltFootville Condensery is builtWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Between 351 and 808 people in every census since 1920.
11 censuses, 1920–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Footville’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Footville itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Footville’s post office has been open since 1855. Another post office, Bachelor's Grove, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Footville post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Footville Condensery (listed 1982, the first).
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 Wikidata (4), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, 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.
