Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1905 on, and the census since 1830.
The French Creek post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Marvin (1849), Cutting (1891) and Marks (1892), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 French Creek’s history is told.
French Creek had its own post office from 1828 to 1907. Three 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of French Creek. 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 French Creek.
From Wikipedia’s history of French Creek.
The land was first settled circa 1811. The town of French Creek was founded in 1829 from part of the town of Clymer.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention French Creek, cut from the printed page as they were published.
given the name of the patriotic Pennsylvanian, George Clymer, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The town of Mina was set off from Clymer in 1824; and French Creek in 1829, leaving Clymer an area of 21,985 acres, bounded on the north by Sherman, east by Harmony, west by French Creek, south by Pennsylvania. The surface is a hilly upland,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In April, 1826, two boys of Samuel French, of the town of French Creek, one aged five years and the other but three, strayed from their path and were lost in the woods. For two days and two nights a search was made without success. On the third day, two hundred men assembled, chose leaders, and formed a line, with the understanding that not a word
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.
In the archiveCassadaga (Village); Clymer Hill (Village); Cassadaga Business Directory; French Creek (T…
Born hereTommy Leach is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1860s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2024State Line Road wb at Venango Twp., Erie Co., PA, Jun…
2024State Line Road wb at Amity Twp., Erie Co., PA, June …
2024State Line Road eb at Wayne Twp., Erie Co., PA, June …
2024PA 426 nb approaching NY state line, June 2024
2024NY 426 nb-NY 474 wb in Cutting, June 2024
2024NY 426 nb past Pennsylvania state line, June 2024
2024NY 426 nb approaching NY 474, June 2024
2018Untitled photo
2018NY 426 north of NY 474
2017Untitled photo
2017NY 426 south inNo then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on French Creek’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 420 and 1,042 people in every census since 1830.
20 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on French Creek’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The French Creek post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (12), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
