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1870 – 2020
Four eras divide at the censuses themselves, not at round dates. The first, 1870 to 1920, is village growth: from 223 to 684 across fifty years, with the fastest single decade the 1870s at 55.2 percent and a near-standstill in the 1910s at 0.4 percent — the decade the railroads that made the town a junction were already built and the farm economy around it was full. The second era, 1920 to 1950, is steady incorporation-era growth: 684 to 1,165, three consecutive decades between 18 and 21 percent, carrying the town past a thousand for the first time in 1950. The third era, 1950 to 2000, is the plateau: 1,165 to 1,402 across fifty years, including the series' only decline before 2020, the 3.8 percent fall of the 1970s, and a 1990s rise of only 2.6 percent. A town of about twelve to fourteen hundred, holding its own while its residents increasingly worked elsewhere, is what those five censuses describe.
The fourth era is two censuses long and reads as an anomaly in both directions: 1,402 to 1,896 in the 2000s, then 1,896 to 1,623 in the 2010s. No other decade in the series moves by a third in either direction except the small-base 1870s. The banked current-today section states the position this section keeps: the 2010–2020 fall is the largest decline in the series, it happened while the town's measured land area rose, and it is unexplained in the record reached. No explanation is offered here either.