Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 27% of U.S. towns · #593 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
Most of Ontwa Township was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1974. Below: maps from 1945 on and the census since 2000.
More historic than 27% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ontwa Township is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns, #593 of 701 in Michigan. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
Few Michigan towns list much on the Register (a typical Michigan town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Ontwa Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (32% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. 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 →
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 Ontwa Township’s history is told.
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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Ontwa Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Ontwa Township is a civil township of Cass County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,904 at the 2020 census.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 6,549 to 6,904 (+5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Ontwa Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
By act approved July 30, 1830, authority was granted for the laying-out of a road " commencing where the township road laid out by the Commissioners of Ontwa Township, Cass County, from Pleasant Lake, in a direction to Pulaski, in Indiana, intersects the southern boundary line between the Territory of Michigan and the State of Indiana ; thence on the road laid out as aforesaid until it intersects 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.
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 SurveyWeddings 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 Ontwa 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 Ontwa Township.
Between 5,865 and 6,904 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ontwa Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Ontwa Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Ontwa Township is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns, #593 of 701 in Michigan. 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.
8% of Ontwa Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.3 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1974.
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).
From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via 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.
