Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1961 on, and the census since 1890.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Date?Madison & Indianapolis Railroad
Date?Town of Madison
Date?Bachman House, Lonesome Hollow
Date?Maywood, Maywood Lane
Date?Main Street (Commercial Buildings)
Date?First Baptist Church, 416 Vine Street
Date?John Eckert House, 510 West Second Street
Date?Tobacco Prizing House, 116 Elm Street
Date?Richard Talbott House, 301 West Second StreetThe first neighbors to add old photos shape how Madison Township’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Madison Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Madison Township is one of nine townships in Pike County, Indiana, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 386 and it contained 176 housing units.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 382 in 2010, 386 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Madison Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
September 17, i860, a committee was appointed by the Board of Education of Madison Township consisting of Jacob Sarber, Wm. Perrin and Henry Long 'Tor the purpose of visiting the school houses in sub-district No. 18 to ascertain whether they have school room enough, and to report at the April meeting.” On April 15, 1861, this committee submitted a report which "was received and the committee discharged/’ and on
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
We will supplement the list of township officers with a list of Madison Township citizens who have held county, state and other honorary positions. In October of 1827 John Swisher succeeded James Kilbourne as county assessor, and served until 1835.
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.
In the archiveLieutenant Colonel William G. Mank provides the eulogy at the funeral of Lieutenant Colon…
In the archiveHon. W.J. Bryan addressing the thousands assembled at Madison, Indiana chautauqua, July 6…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Madison 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 Madison Township.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Madison Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 382 and 908 people in every census since 1890.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Madison Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Madison Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Bowman, 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.
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 Library of Congress (12), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
1866