The Penn Township post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Young's Prairie (1829) and Penn (1871), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 1,902 in 20002020 census: 1,755155 years
How historic is Penn Township?
C+
More historic than 37% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Penn Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Penn Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Penn Township is more historic than 37% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Penn Township’s overall grade.
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 Penn 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.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to C+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.9 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 Penn Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Young's Prairie
1829–1830
Vandalia
1850–today
Penn
1871–1935
18201920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Diamond ShoresMaple Grove Trailer ParkPennSpring BeachVandalia
Gone or out of use
Penn Post Officepost officeVandalia Stationlocale
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Penn Township
Bogue Street Memorial GardenMoonOakdalePrairie GroveYoungs Prairie
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The story so far
Penn Township, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Penn Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Penn Township is a civil township of Cass County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,755 at the 2020 census. Penn Township is the location of the Bonine House, a lookout post on the Underground Railroad, on the corner of M-60 and Penn Road. Vandalia, located within Penn Township, also was affiliated with the Underground Railroad.
Its first post office opened in 1871. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,774 in 2010, 1,755 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Penn Township in 1882
Passages that mention Penn Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Cass county, Michigan1882 · page 423Read the page →
Read the text
Reason S. Pemberton, a native of Ohio, moved to Indiana about 1832, and from thence to Michigan in 1843, and settled in Penn Township. His son, William H. H. Pemberton, came to Newberg in the spring of 1870, bought a farm of William D. Easton, on Section 30, where he is living at the present time.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Cass county, Michigan1882 · page 241Read the page →
Read the text
while as yet there was no settlers within its limits except a very few in the township of Pokagon. He was with the party when they discovered Young's Prairie, in Penn Township, and the same season encamped two weeks on the bank of Diamond Lake, when the snow was so heavy as to make surveying impracticable. After following various lines of employment, young Putnam, in 1832, again joined a
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.
Timeline
Penn Township, 1829 to 1948
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Penn Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1948Vandalia sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Penn Township.
People over time
Penn Township, census by census
Between 1,755 and 1,902 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Penn Township’s Wikipedia page.
Famous people
Famous people close to Penn Township
Nobody well known was born in Penn Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Penn Township post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Penn Township rank for history?
Penn Township is more historic than 37% 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 Penn Township?
16% of Penn Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.9 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1976.
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.
