Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: old-book passages.
The Richland post office opened in 1921, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Lake (1862), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Richland’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Richland.
Richland was laid out in 1861. The town was so named on account of their fertile soil.
The first post office was established in 1862, under the name Lake. It was renamed Richland in 1921, and has still been operating since.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Richland, cut from the printed page as they were published.
emigrants from the Middle and New England states. He located near the present village of Fredericktown, in Knox county, but at the outbreak of the second war with England, because of the fear of Indians, he and many of his neighbors went to the adjoining county of Richland, where he and William Ayres, a relative by marriage, entered the southeast quarter ot section 4, township 20, range 18, comprising one hundred and sixty acres, on the 11th of June, 1813. The land records of Richland county show that Solomon Culver owned many broad acres in Washington township, and also
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Hon. Martin Baldwin Bushnell is a worthy representative of a pioneer family which settled in Ohio in 1805 and whose history has been identified with the growth and development of Richland county since 1820, at which time Sterling- G. Bushnell, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, settled in Vermillion township, then in Richland county.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Olivesburg is on the celebrated Beall trail, and after Beall's troops returned east and were discharged many of them returned to Richland county and made it their home, having been attracted here by the beauty of the country and the richness of the soil, and the pure, cool water that flows so copiously from Richland's numerous springs.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
lage of Lucas, but for many years he was closely associated with industrial and agricultural interests and through the capable direction of his business affairs won the success which now enables him to rest from further strenuous labor. A native of Richland county, he was born in Monroe township on the 14th of November, 1844. His father, Samuel Moffett, was a native of New Jersey and came to Richland county about 1838, settling in Monroe township, where he followed farming for a time, but later took up his abode in Lucas, where he engaged in blacksmithing until his death in 1871. He
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.
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 Richland itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Richland’s post office has been open since 1921. Another post office, Lake, 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).
The Richland post office opened in 1921, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 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.
