From Marion Township’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers
How Marion Township began
When was Marion Township founded?
1823
The Marion Township post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Marion (1823) and Noah (1836), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 1,935203 years
How historic is Marion Township?
B−
More historic than 54% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Marion Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Marion Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Marion Township is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Marion Township’s overall grade.
Indiana towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Indiana town has 7.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Marion Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (22% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). 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 →
What stands out about Marion Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Marion Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Marion Township is one of fourteen townships in Shelby County, Indiana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 1,923 and it contained 867 housing units. Marion Township was named for Francis Marion, an army officer during the American Revolutionary War, known as the Swamp Fox.
Its first post office opened in 1823. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,923 in 2010, 1,935 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Marion Township in 1887
Passages that mention Marion Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Shelby County, Indiana1887 · page 575Read the page →
Read the text
were three principal settlements, one located near the mouth of Brandy wine, called the Ray Settlement, one near Edinburg, in a rich, flat country called the " Haw Patch," and one, the most historic, too, at the Village of Marion, in Marion Township. This settlement at Marion was a public spirited place; they loved advancement and progress, and in fancies their lonely cabins
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.
By decade
Marion Township, decade by decade
3 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings 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 Marion Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1956Rays Crossing sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Marion Township.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewMarion Flint Glass Co., Boys work here but the boss would not permit any photographing. Location: Marion, Indiana, 1908
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Marion Township’s page.
The Marion Township post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Marion Township rank for history?
Marion Township is more historic than 54% 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.
How old are the homes in Marion Township?
14% of Marion Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 Library of Congress (5), 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.
1908
1908
