The Rock Creek Township post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Rock Creek (1846), Burnsville (1852) and Grammer (1893), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 1,402180 years
How historic is Rock Creek Township?
B
More historic than 64% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Rock Creek Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Rock Creek Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Rock Creek Township is more historic than 64% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Rock Creek 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 Rock Creek 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 A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±10.0 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 Rock Creek 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 Rock Creek Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Rock Creek Township is one of twelve townships in Bartholomew County, Indiana, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 1,424 and it contained 566 housing units.
Its first post office opened in 1846. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,424 in 2010, 1,402 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Rock Creek Township in 1888
Passages that mention Rock Creek Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
ures in the banks of Little Sand Creek, one mile east of James Manley's lime kiln, at the Yeal}' and Everroad quarries in Clay Township, at the Manley lime kiln, and at the old saw mill near the residence of Martha Russell, in Rock Creek Township. At the latter place the dip has gained on the base of the creek, so that the shale forms the bed of the stream. It is reported to have been struck in digging a saw mill well south of Elizabethtown, and in a well at Petersville. West of these points no outcrop is seen till it
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Church; on the farm of Mrs. M. Marlin; on the farm of E. Reed, near the village of St. Louis, in Haw Creek Towmship, and the "back-bone" ridge, as it is called, on the farm of J. Remy, west of Burnsville, in Rock Creek Township. The Hawfatch glacial gravel and sand, one of the most extensive and peculiar beds of gravel in the State, is roughly bounded by Flat Rock River on the northwest, and Haw Creek on the southeast, and reaching from the White River bottoms to the Shelby
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Rock Creek Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1942Columbus sheet · 1:125,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Rock Creek Township.
Famous people
Famous people close to Rock Creek Township
Nobody well known was born in Rock Creek Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Rock Creek Township post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Rock Creek Township rank for history?
Rock Creek Township is more historic than 64% 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 Rock Creek Township?
23% of Rock Creek Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.0 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 Wikimedia Commons (1), 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.
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