Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 68% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: old-book passages.
More historic than 68% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Wysox Township is more historic than 68% 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 Wysox 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 Wysox Township’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Wysox Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Wysox Township is one of twelve townships in Carroll County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,324 and it contained 641 housing units.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,366 to 1,324 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Wysox Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
This village of three hundred people is located in the southeast corner of Wysox Township, a township of land scarcely surpassed any where in the country for its general adaptation to farming purjioses. The original village plot was laid out May 19, 1850, and entered of record by Knox and Wheeler.
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.
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 Wysox Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Wysox Township is more historic than 68% 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.
43% of Wysox Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.0 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1945.
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 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.
