From Chillicothe Township’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers
How Chillicothe Township began
When was Chillicothe Township founded?
1839
The Chillicothe Township post office opened in 1839, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1855. Three smaller post offices, Cleary (1845), Cream Ridge (1868) and Norville (1892), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 994 in 18602020 census: 9,079187 years
Founding year: the first Chillicothe Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1855.
What stands out about Chillicothe Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
places listed
4
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
60
each building in a district counts
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
The story so far
Chillicothe Township, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Chillicothe Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Chillicothe ( chil-ih-KOTH-ee) is a city in and the county seat of Livingston County, Missouri, United States. The population was 9,107 at the 2020 census. The name Chillicothe is Shawnee for 'big town'. Chillicothe is known as "The Home of Sliced Bread". For many years its schools were segregated and African American students attended what eventually became known as Garrison School, named after William Lloyd Garrison.
Its first post office opened in 1839. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 9,732 to 9,079 (-7%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
By decade
Chillicothe Township, decade by decade
3 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1950s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings 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 Chillicothe Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1921Chillicothe 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 Chillicothe Township.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewBird's eye view of the city of Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Missouri 1869, 1869
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Chillicothe Township’s page.
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 Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikidata (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
1905
c. 1908
