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History · Nelsonville

Nelsonville’s post office opened in 1871, and 51% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Rising Star Flouring Mill. Below: maps from 1969 on and the census since 1920.

1871first post office
1on the National Register
51%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Nelsonville began

When was Nelsonville founded?

1871

The Nelsonville post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 187 in 19202020 census: 158155 years
Founding year: the first Nelsonville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Nelsonville’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 Nelsonville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Nelsonville’s homes were built before 1938.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Nelsonville’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Nelsonville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Nelsonville.

Read it all →

The community of Nelsonville began about 1855 when English immigrant Jerome Nelson built a six-foot-high dam spanning the Tomorrow River, with a sawmill across the river from where the flouring mill now stands. After Nelson returned from the Civil War he added the flouring mill in 1868. A post office was added in 1871, named Nelsonville for the mill owner. By 1876 two other businesses were there: the Nelson & Loberg general store, and Peterson Boots and Shoes. Other business started in subsequent years, and the Norwegian Lutheran church in 1888.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Nelsonville, 1867 to 1969

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1867BuiltRising Star Flouring Mill is built
  3. 1871Post officeThe Nelsonville post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1969On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Nelsonville, decade by decade

Today1 recent
Nelsonville Wisconsin neighborhood2024Nelsonville Wisconsin neighborhood
On the map

Nelsonville on the map, 1969 to 1985

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

Nelsonville on the 1969 USGS mapNelsonville on the 1985 USGS map1969Amherst sheet · 1:24,000

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

On the National Register

1 historic place in Nelsonville

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2018
Rising Star Flouring Mill
Rising Star Flouring Mill, built 1867
Buildings
Rising Star Flouring MillBuilt 1867

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Nelsonville, census by census

0100200192019401960198020002020Peak: 199

Between 152 and 199 people in every census since 1920.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Nelsonville’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Nelsonville

Nobody well known was born in Nelsonville itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Peter WellerAmerican actor · b. 1947
Garrett Weber-GaleAmerican swimmer · b. 1985
Joe PavelskiAmerican ice hockey player · b. 1984
H
Henry Solomon WellcomeAnglo-American businessman · b. 1853
Suzy Favor HamiltonAmerican middle-distance runner, former escort … · b. 1968
Janel McCarvilleAmerican basketball player · b. 1982
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

AmherstIts storyB−

Questions about Nelsonville’s history

What year was Nelsonville founded?

The Nelsonville post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Nelsonville?

One place: the Rising Star Flouring Mill (listed 2018).

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
Start a conversation
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 Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.