Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listings are the Old Albany Schoolhouse and the John Waggoner House. Below: maps from 1888 on.
The Berwick Township post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Albany (1858) and Berwick (1887), 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 Berwick Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Berwick 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 Berwick Township.
Two 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Berwick Township.
Berwick was a station on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.
A post office was opened in Berwick in 1887, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1937.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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.
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 Berwick Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Berwick Township post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Two places: the Old Albany Schoolhouse (listed 1972) and the John Waggoner House (2025).
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 (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
