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–Not graded
History · Unity

Unity’s post office opened in 1873, and 27% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1963 on, and the census since 1910.

1873first post office
0on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Unity’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Unity began

When was Unity founded?

1873

The Unity post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 363 in 19102020 census: 384153 years
Founding year: the first Unity post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Unity’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Unity’s homes were built before 1960.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Unity’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewBrids [sic] eye view of Unity, Wis: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Unity, in brief

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 village in Clark and Marathon counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is part of the Wausau, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 384 at the 2020 census. Of this, 233 were in Marathon County, and 151 were in Clark County. The village is located in northeastern town of Unity in Clark County and northwestern town of Brighton in Marathon County.

Its first post office opened in 1873. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 343 to 384 (+12%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Unity in 1913

Passages that mention Unity, cut from the printed page as they were published.

consin Central Railroad lasted. He is still farming, devoting himself to stock raising. He has been postmaster in the village of Unity, chairman of the town board of the town of Brighton, and also supervisor of the village of Unity, which municipalities he represented in the county board of Maratho…
History of Marathon County, Wisconsin1913 · page 237Read the page →
Read the text

consin Central Railroad lasted. He is still farming, devoting himself to stock raising. He has been postmaster in the village of Unity, chairman of the town board of the town of Brighton, and also supervisor of the village of Unity, which municipalities he represented in the county board of Marathon county. He is one of the pioneer settlers of the western part of the county, coming to Unity as the right of way was being cut out, and when only one little shanty stood at the site of Unity, which had been built only a few weeks before to give shelter to the workmen on the railroad. He was a

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
all on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad; then there are Norrie, Hatley, Ringle, Callon, Kelly, Marathon City, Edgar, Kenwood, Stratford, and McMillan on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, and Athens, Milano, and Corinth on the Sault St. Mary Railroad, and Spencer, Unity, and Colby on th…
History of Marathon County, Wisconsin1913 · page 146Read the page →
Read the text

all on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad; then there are Norrie, Hatley, Ringle, Callon, Kelly, Marathon City, Edgar, Kenwood, Stratford, and McMillan on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, and Athens, Milano, and Corinth on the Sault St. Mary Railroad, and Spencer, Unity, and Colby on the same railroad, and Eldron and Gallowa on a branch of the Northwestern railroad, branching off and running south from Eland Junction.

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

Unity, 1873 to 1963

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1873Post officeThe Unity post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1912In the archiveBrids [sic] eye view of Unity, Wis
  5. 1963On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Unity, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s2 items
Brids [sic] eye view of Unity, Wis1912Brids [sic] eye view of Unity, WisBrids [sic] eye view of Unity, Wis1912Brids [sic] eye view of Unity, Wis
1920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today3 recent
Unity Village Hall2025Unity Village HallUnity Wisconsin Sign WIS132012Unity Wisconsin Sign WIS13Unity Wisconsin Downtown Looking West2012Unity Wisconsin Downtown Looking West
On the map

Unity on the map, 1963 to 1981

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

Unity on the 1963 USGS mapUnity on the 1981 USGS map1963Abbotsford sheet · 1:62,500

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

Then & now

Stand where they stood

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
Retake this viewBrids [sic] eye view of Unity, Wis, 1912

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 · +15
People over time

Unity, census by census

0100200300400500192019401960198020002020Peak: 452

Between 286 and 452 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Unity

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

See all →
A
Andrew RockAmerican sprinter · b. 1982
B
Bob GalvinAmerican businessman · b. 1922
George Washington BlanchardAmerican politician · b. 1884
L
Lucy ReedAmerican jazz singer · b. 1921
M
Macey KiltyAmerican freestyle wrestler · b. 2001
Mark TauscherAmerican sportsperson and gridiron football pla… · b. 1977
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

BrightonIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Unity’s history

What year was Unity founded?

The Unity post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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 (4), the Library of Congress (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.