Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1952 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 Lima’s history is told.
Two 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 Lima yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Lima is a town in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 771 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated communities of Arthur and Union are located in the town.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 805 to 771 (-4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Lima, cut from the printed page as they were published.
LOCATION, Platteville is one of the southeasterly towns of Grant County, as also one of the more highly cultivated and prosperous, with abundant resources, both vegetable and mineral ; is bounded on the north by the town of Lima, on the east by La Fayette County, on the south by Smelser, and on the west by Harrison, and contains a total of 23,040 acres of land, fairly divided into prairie and timber. It is well watered by Little Platte River and its branches, Block-House Creek and other streams furnishing superior water-power, which has been successfully employed in operating mills, etc. The Galena & Southwestern and Chicago, Milwaukee
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.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lima.
1952Rewey 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 Lima.
Nobody well known was born in Lima 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 Wikimedia Commons (6), 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.
2015
2015
2015
2015
2015
2004