More historic than 22% of U.S. towns · #530 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
Most of Moral Township was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1978. Below: maps from 1953 on and old-book passages.
The Moral Township post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name. Six smaller post offices, Wrights (1828), Doblestown (1837) and Pleasant View (1841), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 4,617171 years
How historic is Moral Township?
C−
More historic than 22% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Moral Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Moral Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Moral Township is more historic than 22% of U.S. towns, #530 of 593 in Indiana. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Moral 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 Moral 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 D to C. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.6 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 Moral Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
On September 9, 1969, Moral Township was the site of the deadliest air disaster in the history of Indiana.
On that date, Allegheny Airlines flight 853, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 jetliner, registration N988VJ, collided in midair with a Piper PA-28 registration N7374J which was a light general aviation aircraft. After the collision, flight 853 rolled over and crashed into a soybean field near London, Indiana at over 430 mph; none of the 82 people on board survived. The pilot and sole occupant of the PA-28 were killed upon impact with the tail assembly of the DC-9. With a death toll of 83, this is the deadliest aviation disaster in the history of Indiana.
Passages that mention Moral Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Shelby County, Indiana1887 · page 644Read the page →
Read the text
time he sold the Victor sewing machine in Shelby County. In the spring of 1876 he began farming, and continued the same for five years, farming rented land there and then purchased forty acres, to which his father-in-law added forty more, in Moral Township. In January, 1881, he came to Morristown and established a saw mill, with a capital of $5,000. This investment has proven a profitable one, as he now employs from twenty to twenty-five men, and an equal number of teams ever}' year. He saws and ships
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Shelby County, Indiana1887 · page 455Read the page →
Read the text
The Vlllaor of London is principally located in Section 25, of Moral Township. Before the building of the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago Railroad early in the decade of the fifties, there was nothing attempted at its present site in the way of merchandising. Soon after the completion of that important highway of commerce, Jesse Oaks began doing a small retail business in a building he had erected for that purpose. It was the first building erected on the present site of the town and it still stands for the
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.
Timeline
Moral Township, 1828 to 1953
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Moral Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1953Acton 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 Moral Township.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Moral Township post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Moral Township rank for history?
Moral Township is more historic than 22% of U.S. towns, #530 of 593 in Indiana. 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 Moral Township?
6% of Moral Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.6 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1978.
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 Wikipedia, 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.
