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History · Liberty

Liberty’s post office opened in 1866, and 34% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1926 on and old-book passages.

1866first post office
0on the National Register
34%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Quick answers

How Liberty began

When was Liberty founded?

1866

The Liberty post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Ross (1890), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 341160 years
Founding year: the first Liberty post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Liberty’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Liberty are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Liberty’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Liberty’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story so far

Liberty, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Liberty yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Liberty is a town in Vernon County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 341 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated communities of Liberty and Ross are located in the town.

Its first post office opened in 1866. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 252 to 341 (+35%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Liberty in 1884

Passages that mention Liberty, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Liberty, the smallest town in Vernon county, was last to be organized. It was formerly a part of Viroqua town; but on account of being so far from the village of Viroqua, the people chose to be set off into a separate organization, which was done in 1858; Allen Rusk presenting a petition, signed by…
History of Vernon county, Wisconsin ..1884 · page 622Read the page →
Read the text

Liberty, the smallest town in Vernon county, was last to be organized. It was formerly a part of Viroqua town; but on account of being so far from the village of Viroqua, the people chose to be set off into a separate organization, which was done in 1858; Allen Rusk presenting a petition, signed by many of the citizens, to the county board, requesting them to set off

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Tliat part of Vernon county known as the town of Liberty,i8situated in congressional township 12, range 3 west, and contains about twenty-four sections of land. It is bounded on the north by the town of Webster, on the east by Kichla;id county, on the south by the town of Kickapoo, and on the west …
History of Vernon county, Wisconsin ..1884 · page 619Read the page →
Read the text

Tliat part of Vernon county known as the town of Liberty,i8situated in congressional township 12, range 3 west, and contains about twenty-four sections of land. It is bounded on the north by the town of Webster, on the east by Kichla;id county, on the south by the town of Kickapoo, and on the west by the town of Viroipia. This town is watered by the Kickapoo

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

Liberty, 1866 to 1926

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1866Post officeThe Liberty post office opens
  3. 1890Post officeThe Ross post office opens
  4. 1898Born hereElmer Kraemer is born here
  5. 20th century
  6. 1902Post officeThe Ross post office closes
  7. 1903Post officeThe Liberty post office closes
  8. 1926On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Liberty on the map, 1926 to 1983

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Liberty. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Liberty on the 1926 USGS mapLiberty on the 1965 USGS mapLiberty on the 1983 USGS map1926La Farge sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Liberty.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and places now gone

Liberty had its own post office from 1866 to 1903. Another post office, Ross, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Liberty
1866–1903
Ross
1890–1902
18601940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Ross
Gone or out of use
Ames SchoolschoolElk Run SchoolschoolForaker SchoolschoolPlainview Schoolschool

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

ViolaIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townKickapooIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWebsterIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townForestIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townViroqua2 historic placesA−

Questions about Liberty’s history

What year was Liberty founded?

The Liberty post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

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 and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.