Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Benjaminville Friends Meetinghouse and Burial Ground. Below: maps from 1951 on and old-book passages.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Dawson Township’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Dawson Township.
Dawson Township was originally named Lee Township, but changed to Padua Township on May 17, 1858, and then to Dawson on an unknown date. Dawson Township was named for John Wells Dawson, a pioneer settler.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Dawson Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Dawson Township. — This township was named in honor of John Wells Dawson, one of the two early settlers of Blooming Grove, who made his home for a time in 1826 in a site that is a part of the area of the township. The Dawson home was on the land afterwards occupied by John Wirt, near where the Old Settlers picnic was held for many years.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Dawson Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Dawson Township.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Dawson Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Padua, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
One place: the Benjaminville Friends Meetinghouse and Burial Ground (listed 1983).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
