Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1832.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Canton Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Canton Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #640 of 993 in Ohio. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Canton Township’s overall grade.
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 Canton Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (23% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.3 points). Two sources give 1805.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 →
What stands out about Canton Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
North Industry
1832–1956
Waco
1891–1906
18301930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Banker HeightsClear View HeightsEast OrchardEdmeyer ParkGambrinusHardscrabbleIndustrial HeightsLakeview TerraceMelody Mobile Home ParkMorelandNorth IndustryOrchard HeightsRidge Mobile Home ParkSouth Haven Mobile ParkThunderbird TerraceWaco
Gone or out of use
Congress FurnacelocaleNorth Industry Post Officepost officeWaco Post Officepost office
6cemeteries and burying grounds inside Canton Township
GerberHebrewHillcrestMount ZionNieszValley Chapel
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
People over time
Canton Township, census by census
Peaked at 116,912 in 1950; 70,872 people lived here in 2020.
19 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Canton Township’s Wikipedia page.
Timeline
Canton Township, 1805 to 1958
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Canton was founded in 1805 when its plat was recorded at New Lisbon, Ohio, on November 15, 1805, by surveyor Bezaleel Wells, who later served in the Ohio Senate.
Canton was likely named as a memorial to Captain John O'Donnell, an Irish merchant marine with the British East India Company whom Wells admired. O'Donnell named his estate in Maryland after the Chinese port city of Guangzhou, formerly romanized as Canton. O'Donnell was the first person to transport goods from Guangzhou to Baltimore. The name selected by Wells may also have been influenced by the Huguenot use of the word "canton", which meant a division of a district containing several communes.
Passages that mention Canton Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A standard history of Stark County, Ohio1916 · page 627Read the page →
Read the text
sylvania, which was the place of his birth and in which he was a representative of one of the fine old German families early established in the Keystone State. John Sponseller acquired a tract of Government land in the forest wilds of Canton Township and set himself vigorously to the task of reclaiming a farm from the wilderness. He developed one of the best farms of Canton Township, manifesting characteristic German thrift and good judgment, and on the ancient homestead that showed forth the results of his earnest toil and endeavor he continued
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.
By decade
Canton Township, decade by decade
3 decades in the archive, from the 1810s to the 1900s. 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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Canton Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1958Canton East sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Canton 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 viewCanton-Drop Forge (COAF), 1899
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Canton Township’s page.
In 1805, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Canton Township’s post office opened in 1832, and the census of 1830 counted 1,257 people here.
How does Canton Township rank for history?
Canton Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #640 of 993 in Ohio. 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.
How old are the homes in Canton Township?
12% of Canton Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.3 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1959.
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 Wikimedia Commons (3), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (4), Wikipedia, 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.
1899
1901
1901
