Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Free Church. Below: maps from 1939 on and old-book passages.
The York Township post office opened in 1839, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, York (1839), Metz (1849) and York Centre (1855), 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.
Four other post offices 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how York Township’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of York Township.
A post office was established at York in 1839, and remained in operation until 1907. An old variant name of the community was called Hathaway.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention York Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
David K. Jones, one of the noted pioneers of York Township, came with his mother from New Hampshire in the spring of 1835, and settled on the banks of Wall Lake, west of Orland, in what was known in those days as the Vermont settlement. In 1836 he entered land in York and Richland for himself, his mother, and other parties. In the spring of 1838 he and his mother settled on the south half of the northeast quarter of section 32, and in 1840 built themselves a cabin. When Jones was living on section 32, wild
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
York Township. His ax and muscle let the sun shine where there was too much shade, tie also made roads, bridged mud and morass. He obtained the sobriquet of the " racking pony," on Jackson Prairie, because of his beating others in cradling wheat.
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.
Weddings 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 York 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 York Township.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in York Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The York Township post office opened in 1839, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Free Church (listed 1983).
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 National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
