There used to be a lot more even smaller "towns" around here but by about 100 years ago they were already disappearing as business came to these bigger little towns.
My home town was DeFuniak Springs, FL. It arose when the railroad came. It also became something of a resort town when the Chautauqua made it their Winter headquarters. Of course Chautauqua, New York was the Summer and main headquarters.
It had a population of 5200 when I was a kid back in the 50s and 60s and is still just about that size. A friend of mine who lives in Pensacola, married a much younger girl who was a model. She is taking college courses and one day they visited a couple of places including DeFuniak on a geology field trip.
She told her husband that it was the prettiest little town she had ever seen.