Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 94% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church, School, Rectory, and Convent of the Sister of the Precious Blood. Below: old-book passages.
The Big Spring Township post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Springville (1836), Big Spring (1846) and Fosters Mill (1846), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 94% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Big Spring Township is more historic than 94% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its age lowest.
Ohio towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Ohio town has 2.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Big Spring Township’s 28.5 sits above most of its state (84% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 5 historic buildings outnumber those of 70% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Four 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Big Spring Township’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Big Spring Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Big Spring Township is one of the fifteen townships of Seneca County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 1,683 people in the township.
Its first post office opened in 1846. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,769 to 1,683 (-5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Big Spring Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
and Lucy Crocker had two childi-en: Laura, wife of C. W. Foster, and Roswell. The subject of our sketch settled in what is now Fostoria in 1832; built a saw-mill, the first in the place and in the western part of the county. After conducting this mill for seven years he went to Big Spring Township, this county, where he remained for two years, and built a saw-mill and a grist-mill. He then returned here, bringing his mill machinery with him. and conducted a grist-mill for several years. He has been largely interested in real estate, has l^latted several additions to the town of Fostoria. and is now residing in what
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
and Lucy Crocker had two children: Laiu-a. wife of C. AV. Foster, and Roswell. The subject of our sketch settled in what is now Fostoria in 1832; built a saw-mill, the first in the place and in the western part of the county. After conducting this mill for seven years he went to Big Spring Township, this county, where he remained for two years, and built a saw-mill and a gi'ist-mill. He then retiu-ned here, bringing his mill machinery with him. and conducted a grist-mill for several years. He has been largely interested in real estate, has platted several additions to the town of Fostoria. and is now residing in what
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Big Spring Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Big Spring Township post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Big Spring Township is more historic than 94% 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.
One place: the St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church, School, Rectory, and Convent of the Sister of the Precious Blood (listed 1982).
38% of Big Spring Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.4 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1959.
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).
From the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
