Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 65% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: old-book passages.
More historic than 65% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Loran Township is more historic than 65% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
Few Illinois towns list much on the Register (a typical Illinois town has 0.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Loran Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
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 Loran Township’s history is told.
Two other post offices 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Loran Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Loran is an unincorporated community in Stephenson County, Illinois, United States.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,442 to 1,362 (-6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Loran Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The first settlement in the township, however, all agree, was made during the year 1836, by William Kirkpatrick, who was subsequently identified with the company organized to lay out Freeport as the county seat. He was the original white settler in the present limits of Loran Township, establishing himself about Mill Grove, in Section 14. Here he erected a saw-mill, but the date of this evidence of enterprise is in dispute. Some contend that it did not go up until 1838, while others assert that it was in active operation a year earlier. This latter assumption is possibly correct, for it is averred in Freeport
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nobody well known was born in Loran Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Loran Township is more historic than 65% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
36% of Loran Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±13.9 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1960.
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).
From 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.