Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1949 on and the census since 1990.
The Grant post office opened in 1894, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Grant’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Grant yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Grant is a town in Dunn County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 395 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1894. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 385 to 395 (+3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Grant, cut from the printed page as they were published.
“In the spring of 1837 I ceased to work for Daniels, Denniston & Co., and Grant County being organized, March 4, 1837, an election was held for county officers, at which I was elected the first register of deeds of Grant County. In the summer of 1837 I was appointed a justice of the peace of Grant County by Gov. Henry Dodge. In No¬ vember, 1837, 1 moved the office of register of deeds and myself from Cassville to Lancaster, and lived there until the spring of 1855, when I moved back to Cassville.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
saw-mill, the first in the county, a few miles up the river from the fur¬ nace. It has been stated that a post-office was established at Gibral¬ tar in 1828, but the editor can find no record of any post-office here till 1838. The first post-office in what is now Grant County was established at Platteville in 1829, with J. H. Rountree as postmaster. Previous to that some person would go to Galena from Hardscrabble or Platteville and bring out in his pocket all the mail for his neighbor¬ hood.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Grant. 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 Grant.
Between 385 and 426 people in every census since 1990.
4 censuses, 1990–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Grant’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Grant itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Grant had its own post office from 1894 to 1901.
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 Grant post office opened in 1894, 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.
