Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1927 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 Unity’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Unity yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Unity is a town in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 511 at the 2020 census.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 506 in 2010, 511 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Unity, cut from the printed page as they were published.
1875, the first meeting in Pigeon was held on the same date, the first meeting in Unity was held in April, 1878, at the schoolhouse in Section 22, Township 24, Range 8, and the first meeting in Chimney Rock was held at the schoolhouse in Section 11, Township 23, Range 9, in April, 1882. The question of the division of Lincoln and the creation of Pigeon was submitted to the voters, the only instance in the history of the county where such a provision was made.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Unity Township was not settled until after the two townships on either side. A number of claims were taken in 1856, but so far as is known, none of the claimants were living here at that time. Nearly all the first settlers have moved away. Probably the first two settlers were Dennis Lawler, who settled south of the Buffalo River in the eastern part of the township, and P. B. Williams, who settled in the central part of the township and had land on both sides of the river. These settlers came about 1859. It was not until 1870 that the real influx of settlement came to this township. Among
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.
Born hereJohn L. Dahl is born here
In the archiveBrids [sic] eye view of Unity, Wis
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Unity. 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 Unity.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
![Brids [sic] eye view of Unity, Wis](https://images.townratings.com/story/35303/b4ea28e487d3415935ab-l.jpg)
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Unity’s page.
Retake this view · +15Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
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 the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
