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History · Sugar Creek Township

23% of Sugar Creek Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1925 on, and old-book passages.

0on the National Register
23%homes built before 1940
4old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Sugar Creek Township’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Sugar Creek Township’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 4 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19253 editions of the USGS map, 1925 to 1984. Watch Sugar Creek Township change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Sugar Creek Township’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewSugar Creek refinery: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Sugar Creek Township on the map, 1925 to 1984

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

Sugar Creek Township on the 1925 USGS mapSugar Creek Township on the 1948 USGS mapSugar Creek Township on the 1984 USGS map1925Gilman 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 Sugar Creek Township.

The story so far

Sugar Creek Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Sugar Creek Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Sugar Creek Township is a township in Harrison County, Missouri, United States. At the 2020 census, its population was 440. Sugar Creek Township was created in June 1845 and took its name from Sugar Creek.

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 525 to 440 (-16%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Sugar Creek Township in 1921

Passages that mention Sugar Creek Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Melbourne, a town located on the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City Railroad in Sugar Creek Township has a population of 159 and is a progressive village. There is a bank and mercantile establishments here. Other villages of Harrison County where business centers are maintained are Brooklyn, which is loca…
History of Harrison County, Missouri1921 · page 166Read the page →
Read the text

Melbourne, a town located on the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City Railroad in Sugar Creek Township has a population of 159 and is a progressive village. There is a bank and mercantile establishments here. Other villages of Harrison County where business centers are maintained are Brooklyn, which is located on section 27, Union Township, and has a population of eighty-four ; Atidover, a village on the Burlington Railroad in Colifax Township; Akron, an inland village in Clay Township; Blue Ridge, in Adams Township ; Bridgeport, Cypress Township ; Hatfield,

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

Sugar Creek Township, 1897 to 1966

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1897Post officeThe Melbourne post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1909In the archiveSugar Creek refinery
  5. 1925On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1943In the archiveSugar Creek, Missouri. Passing an oil refinery along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe R…
  7. 1966Post officeThe Melbourne post office closes
By decade

Sugar Creek Township, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s2 items
Sugar Creek refinery1909Sugar Creek refinerySugar Creek refinery1909Sugar Creek refinery
1910s–1930snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
1940s2 items
Sugar Creek, Missouri. Passing an oil refinery along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad between Marceline, Mis…1943Sugar Creek, Missouri. Passing an oil refinery along …Untitled photo, possibly related to:Sugar Creek, Missouri. Passing an oil refinery along the Atchison, Topeka, and Sant…1943Untitled photo, possibly related to:Sugar Creek, Miss…
1950s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
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.

Sugar Creek refinery
Retake this viewSugar Creek refinery, 1909

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Sugar Creek Township’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

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

Another post office, Melbourne, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Melbourne
Gone or out of use
Metcalf SchoolschoolMitchell ChurchchurchSpring Hill Schoolschool
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Sugar Creek Township
Cat CreekGilmanMitchell

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Adams TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townFox Creek TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLincoln TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townGilman CityIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Sugar Creek 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 the Library of Congress (4), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.