Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1955 on and old-book passages.
The Springvale post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Welch Prairie (1855), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Springvale’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Springvale yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Springvale is a town in Columbia County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 539 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1852. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 520 to 539 (+4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Springvale, cut from the printed page as they were published.
In addition to the foregoing, there were grown iii the town of Caledonia, 1 acre of flax ; in the town of Fort Winnebago, 4 acres of cranberries ; in the town of Hampden, 1 acre of tobacco ; in the town of Lodi, 3 acres of cranberries and 19 acres of flax ; in the town of Randolph, 1 acre of flax, and in the town of Springvale, li acres of flax. There were also 188 acres of hops cultivated in the county, divided as follows : Caledonia, 23J acres ; Columbus, 5 ; Dekorra, 4 ; Fort Winnebago, 1 ; Hampden, 3 ; Leeds, 5 ; Lewiston, 54 ; Marcellon, 6i ; Newport, 40 ; Otsego, 22 ; Portage City, 7 ; Springvale, 10 ; West Point, 3, and Wyocena, 4. For two or three years prior to 1868, hops were largely grown throughout the county.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In the spring of 1849, the Calvanistic Methodists erected the first church building in the Town of Springvale, on Section 12. In the same year the Protestant Methodists organized the pioneer religious church of the Town of Marcellon at the postoffiee by that name.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
grated to America in 1847. there being ten children, six sons and four daughters. David Owens, who had engaged in the sheep industry in his native land, had accumulated more wealth than the average emigrant of that time, and on his arrival in the Town of Springvale took up about six hundred and eighty aieres of land, in Sections 14, 23 and 36. By his own management, with the help of his sons and such as he was able to hire, lie developed a splendid farm, and became one of the most substantial men of the county. At the age of sixty-four David
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Springvale. 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 Springvale.
Springvale had its own post office from 1852 to 1853. Another post office, Welch Prairie, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Springvale post office opened in 1852, 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 U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) 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.
