Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 36% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: maps from 1909 on and old-book passages.
The Leon post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 36% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Leon is more historic than 36% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Leon’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.
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 →
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 Leon’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Leon. 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 Leon.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Leon yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1851. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,086 to 1,144 (+5%).
Passages that mention Leon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
At a meeting of the county board of Monroe county on January 6, 1863, a petition having been presented by the inhabitants of the proposed town, a resolution was passed detaching township sixteen, range three west, from the town of Leon and creating it the town of Byron, and provided that the first election should be held at the house of Frederick Swartslow on the first Tuesday in April, 1863, which was accordingly done and the town organization perfected. Originally the town comprised the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
He first located in Angelo township, near Sparta, where he remained one year, then went to Minnesota. After a short time he returned to Monroe county and located in Leon township, remaining there two years, and then moved to the town of Wells and spent two more years, and again returned to Leon and spent two years; thence to the town of Angelo, locating on his present farm, eighty acres of which lies in section thirty-four, Angelo, and 157 acres in section three, Wells township, in 1901. In 1905
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
county and purchased 324 acres three miles south of the village of Leon, and there lived for thirty years, when he went to reside with his son, who had purchased a farm close to Leon. Here they passed the balance of their long and useful lives; the father died November 21, 1907, in his seventy-fourth year; his Avidow survived until January 23, 1910, Avhen she passed aiWRx at the age of seventy-five years and eight months. They were married in 1857 and raised a family of five children, all of
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
From that time until the organization of the county settlements at different points were quite frequent, notably that at Leon in 1851 by E. E. Shaw and companions ; in the town of Jetferson in 1854 by Thompson Hazen who, as has been before mentioned, opened a hotel known as " Hazen 's Corner;" the settlement of the towns which followed the organization of the county in 1851: are treated in separate articles subsequently in this work.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Leon itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Leon had its own post office from 1851 to 1918.
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 Leon post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Leon is more historic than 36% 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.
16% of Leon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.9 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1992.
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).
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.
