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History · Nora Township

Nora Township’s post office opened in 1852, and 23% of its homes were built before 1940

1852first post office
0on the National Register
23%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Nora Township began

When was Nora Township founded?

1852

The Nora Township post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Howardsville (1843), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 344174 years
Founding year: the first Nora Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Nora 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 Nora Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Nora Township’s homes were built before 1959.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Nora Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Nora 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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The story

How Nora Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Nora Township.

Read it all →

Nora was named by a railroad official for a female settler. According to another source, the name "Nora" was selected on account of its brevity, Nora being a quite small place.

Nora Elementary School (whose athletic nickname was the Navahos) was a fixture of the town for years. In the early 1980s consolidation led to the school's closure and it was converted to apartments. Until the 1960s the town had a grocery store run by Belle Lutter, who claimed to have ridden Ulysses S. Grant's horse as a girl.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Nora Township, decade by decade

Today1 recent
ILMap-doton-Nora2005ILMap-doton-Nora
Famous people

Famous people close to Nora Township

Nobody well known was born in Nora Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Abner DalrympleAmerican baseball player · b. 1857
Charles N. FowlerAmerican politician · b. 1852
Julia Bracken WendtAmerican sculptor · b. 1870
L
Leo BinzCatholic archbishop · b. 1900
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

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

Gone or out of use
Chelsea ChurchchurchChelsea SchoolschoolGarfield SchoolschoolGreenvale SchoolschoolHays SchoolschoolHowardsville SchoolschoolPuckett Schoolschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Nora Township
East ChelseaWest Chelsea

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Wards Grove TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWest Point Township2 historic placesARush Township2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWarren Township2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWinslow TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townKent Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Nora Township’s history

What year was Nora Township founded?

The Nora Township post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
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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 Wikimedia Commons (1), 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.