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History · Bethel Township

Half of Bethel Township’s homes were built after 1981

Most of Bethel Township was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1981.

0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about Bethel Township’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 Bethel Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old burying grounds17 cemeteries and burying grounds inside Bethel Township.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bethel Township’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Another post office, Siesta, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Gone or out of use
Camp Creek Church of the BrethrenchurchCottage Corner SchoolschoolEagle Free Methodist ChurchchurchEagle SchoolschoolEast Bethel SchoolschoolMount Zion Free Methodist ChurchchurchMount Zion SchoolschoolNew Era SchoolschoolSiesta Post Officepost officeUnion ChurchchurchVictor SchoolschoolWest Bethel Schoolschool
17cemeteries and burying grounds inside Bethel Township
Archer - BethelBethel BaptistCostDunkardDunsworthGibsonGunningPruittRiggScottStonekingStonekingSullivanVawterWarmackWaymackWilley

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

The story

How Bethel Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bethel Township.

Read it all →

The first settler of Bethel Township was John Gibson, a native of the state of North Carolina, who settled in 1829, on section two. He built the first house within the limits of the present township near the village of Middletown.

Among other earliest settlers of Bethel township between 1829 and 1835 were: John Stoneking, Benjamin Matthews, James H. Dunsworth, Charles Dunsworth, James Edmonston, John Venard, William Venard, Malachi Monk, John Monk, Martin Fugate, John W. Fugate, James C. Archer, Thomas F. Shoopman, William I. Pace, Bowen Webb, Jesse C. Webb, John Matthews, Samuel T. Matthews, M. C. Foster, William Holton, George W. Provine, James L. Horrell, John McCormack, John Patrick, John E. Riggs, and Samuel Riggs.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Chalmers TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBrooklyn TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLamoine TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townIndustry TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Bethel Township’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

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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 Wikipedia, 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.