Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1961 on and old-book passages.
The Paris post office opened in 1838, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Paris’s history is told.
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 SurveyWikipedia doesn’t have a history of Paris yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Paris is a town in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 655 at the 2020 census. The village of Dickeyville is surrounded by the town's boundaries.
Its first post office opened in 1838. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 702 to 655 (-7%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Paris, cut from the printed page as they were published.
SETTLEMENT AND ORGANIZATION OF PARIS The town of Paris was one of the original towns organized in 1849. It was then thinly settled, the city of Paris having vanished. The few old settlers whose names can now be learned were: Robert Durley, who settled in the town in 1834, Isaac Hornbeck, who settled on Section 21 in 1844, Thomas Longbotham, on Section 22 in 1846, Frederick Maring, on Section 21 in 1856, and Josiah Willev, on Sec¬ tion 25 in 1858. About the beginning of the war the town began to
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
At a meeting of the County Commissioners, May 4, 1838, Martial Detantabaratz, of Paris, petitioned for a road from Platteville to Paris, a town located at the junction of the Platte and Little Platte Rivers. The Board appointed Ralph Carver, James Gilmore and James Dixon commissioners to locate such road, the petitioner to deposit $25, as required by law. At the same meeting Detantabaratz and others presented a petition for a road from Lancaster to Galena by way of Paris. James Bonham, Jonathan Craig, and Enos P. Wood
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Paris. 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 Paris.
Nobody well known was born in Paris itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Paris had its own post office from 1838 to 1843.
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 Paris post office opened in 1838, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 (7), 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.
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