Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1983 on, and old-book passages.
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 Jefferson’s history is told.
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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Jefferson yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Jefferson is a town in Monroe County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 841 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated community of St. Mary's is located within the town.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 819 to 841 (+3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Jefferson, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Previous to 1857, the present city of Jefferson was under the same government as the township. In 1857, the village of Jefferson was incorporated and represented in the township Board of Supervisors. This continued until 1878, when an act "to incorporate the citv of Jefferson" was passed by the Legislature of Wisconsin and approved March 19 of that year, since which date the whilom town and village has been considered as a municipal corporation, entitled to certain privileges and immunities thereunto appertaining, in consideration of securing to the citizens life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The city of Jefferson is still connected with the town or township government for town purposes.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The first settlers in Jefferson county were American-born. The great tide of foreign emigration, which since that time has Bet in so strongly westward, had not then begun, and it was a number of years after the first settlers came to Jefferson county before the foregn-born sought homes here. The first settlement was of Germans near Jefferson in '42, and the first German girl I ever saw was engaged in my father's family as a domestic.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The town of Jefferson, lying in the southwestern part of J\Ionroe county, known as township fifteen, north of range three west, was originally a part of Portland township, which comprised townships fifteen, range three west, and fifteen, four west, until the year 1858, when the tow^nships separated and township fifteen, range four west, was organized, and by a vote of its people it was named "Jefferson." Township fifteei:!, range three west, retained its name of Portland, which it still bears. The years
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
river canal company. This company was given authority to apply to congress for an appropriation in money or lands to aid in the construction of the work, which was to have its eastern outlet in the Milwaukee river, and to unite at its western terminus with Rock river, near the present village of Jefferson, in Jefferson county. The result was that a grant of land of oddnumbered sections in a strip of territory five miles on each side of the line of the proposed canal was secured, and in July, 1839, over forty thousand acres were sold at the minimum price of two dollars and fifty cents per acre. However, owing mainly to the fact that purchasers were compelled to pay double the government price for their lands — owing also to the circumstance
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 SurveyThe U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Jefferson.
1983Melvina sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Jefferson.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Jefferson’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Jefferson itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
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 the Library of Congress (2), 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.
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