The Neva post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, New (1878) and Kempster (1882), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 846134 years
Founding year: the first Neva post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Neva’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Neva had its own post office from 1892 to 1898. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
New
1878–1890
Kempster
1882–1994
Deerbrook
1887–today
Neva
1892–1898
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
DeerbrookKempsterNeva Corners
Gone or out of use
Little Chicago SchoolschoolSpringbrook Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Neva
Star Neva
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The story so far
Neva, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Neva yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Neva is a town in Langlade County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 846 at the 2020 census, down from 902 at the 2010 census. The town established a post office in 1892, until it was discontinued in 1898. The unincorporated communities of Deerbrook, Kempster, Neva, and Neva Corners are located in the town.
Its first post office opened in 1892. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 902 to 846 (-6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Neva in 1922
Passages that mention Neva, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Langlade County, Wisconsin, from U. S. government survey to present time, with biographical sketches1922 · page 214Read the page →
Read the text
Neva township was named in honor of Chief Neva, leader of a tribe of Chippewa Indians, who visited at what is now known as Neva Corners on their way north to Post Lake in an early day. Once one of the largest, it is now one of the smallest townships in Langlade County, embracing a territory of thirty-six square miles or one Congressional Township No. 32, North of Range 11 East. It is bounded on the north by Up-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Langlade County, Wisconsin, from U. S. government survey to present time, with biographical sketches1922 · page 219Read the page →
Read the text
The chief settlements in the district are Neva Corners and Deerbrook. Neva Corners is at the meeting point of five well travelled highways. The first general store was erected at Neva Corners by W. J. Mattek.
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
Neva, 1878 to 1994
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
