Founding year: the first Grant post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Grant’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Grant is more historic than 24% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Grant’s overall grade.
Wisconsin towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Wisconsin town has 3.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Grant’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Grant’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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 Portage County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,842 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated community of Kellner is located partially in the town.
Its first post office opened in 1864. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,906 to 1,842 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Grant in 1900
Passages that mention Grant, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Grant County Wisconsin1900 · page 102Read the page →
Read the text
“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.
History of Grant County Wisconsin1900 · page 18Read the page →
Read the text
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.
Timeline
Grant, 1864 to 1970
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Grant post office opened in 1864, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Grant rank for history?
Grant is more historic than 24% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Grant?
6% of Grant’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.2 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1984.
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).
From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
