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History · Montcalm

Montcalm’s post office opened in 1901, and 42% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1911 on.

1901first post office
0on the National Register
42%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Montcalm began

When was Montcalm founded?

1901

The Montcalm post office opened in 1901, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Riverside (1875), Duhring (1888) and Crane (1900), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 575125 years
Founding year: the first Montcalm post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Montcalm’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Montcalm are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Montcalm, and 1 old place names are still on the map.On the map since 19114 editions of the USGS map, 1911 to 1979. Watch Montcalm change.Old housesHalf of Montcalm’s homes were built before 1957.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Montcalm’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Montcalm’s post office has been open since 1901. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Riverside
1875–1889
Duhring
1888–1986
Crane
1900–1901
Montcalm
1901–today
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Duhring
Gone or out of use
Locust Grove Schoolschool
4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Montcalm
BelcherHerndonKingOwens

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

On the map

Montcalm on the map, 1911 to 1979

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

Montcalm on the 1911 USGS mapMontcalm on the 1924 USGS mapMontcalm on the 1962 USGS mapMontcalm on the 1979 USGS map1911Pocahontas Special 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 Montcalm.

The story

How Montcalm came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Montcalm.

Read it all →

The first record of continuous European settlement of the Montcalm area is the 1840 census of Mercer County in what was then the state of Virginia. A 700-acre farm, located where Crane Creek joins the Bluestone, was the property of George Bailey. He, his wife, and six children lived on the farm that included a farmhouse, likely located on the lower slopes of Tabernacle Mountain, an orchard and in what would be today's Main Street, and a field of timothy grass. About one hundred acres of corn field could be found at the top of a mountain on "the opposite side of the river" (either Methodist Church Hill or Browning Lambert Mountain). The farm also featured a small dam on the Crane Creek that powered a corn grist mill, the only one in the area and the farm's most valuable property.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Montcalm, 1875 to 1986

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1875Post officeThe Riverside post office opens
  3. 1888Post officeThe Duhring post office opens
  4. 1889Post officeThe Riverside post office closes
  5. 20th century
  6. 1900Post officeThe Crane post office opens
  7. 1901Post officeThe Crane post office closes
  8. 1911On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  9. 1986Post officeThe Duhring post office closes
By decade

Montcalm, decade by decade

Today1 recent
WVMap-doton-Montcalm2004WVMap-doton-Montcalm

Questions about Montcalm’s history

What year was Montcalm founded?

The Montcalm post office opened in 1901, 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 →
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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 (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.