Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Marion Township

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Marion Township

18% of Marion Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1946 on.

0on the National Register
18%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory

What stands out about Marion Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Lost villages5 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Marion Township, and 2 old place names are still on the map.A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Marion Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Five other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Lindley
1854–1906
Rural Dale
1865–1881
Banta
1881–1882
Corneau
1882–1888
Dunlap
1888–1942
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
DunlapLindley
Gone or out of use
Black Oak ChurchchurchCenter Union SchoolschoolForest Hill SchoolschoolLindley SchoolschoolRural Dale SchoolschoolSinia SchoolschoolUnion Grove Schoolschool
9cemeteries and burying grounds inside Marion Township
BarrBlack OakBoyersBrooksJoab HollowayJoseph WrightNewlanRural DaleSalem East

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Start Marion Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Marion Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Marion Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Marion Township.

Read it all →

Marion was laid out in 1820, and was the Cole County government seat until 1829, prior to its move to Jefferson City (and during which time Cole county included what became the eastern half of a new Moniteau County in 1845). The community was named for Francis Marion, an officer in the Revolutionary War. A post office was established at Marion in 1823, and remained in operation until 1953.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Marion Township, 1854 to 1946

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1854Post officeThe Lindley post office opens
  3. 1865Post officeThe Rural Dale post office opens
  4. 1881Post officeThe Rural Dale post office closes
  5. 1881Post officeThe Banta post office opens
  6. 1882Post officeThe Banta post office closes
  7. 20th century
  8. 1906Post officeThe Lindley post office closes
  9. 1918Born hereHarry Wilks Fulbright is born here
  10. 1946On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Marion Township on the map, 1946 to 1984

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Marion Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Marion Township on the 1946 USGS mapMarion Township on the 1984 USGS map1946Galt 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 Marion Township.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Liberty TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townTrenton Township6 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWilson TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Marion Township’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.