Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 44% of U.S. towns · #718 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1914 on, and old-book passages.
More historic than 44% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Center Township is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #718 of 993 in Ohio. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Center 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.
Founding year: our sources. 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Center Township’s history is told.
Two 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 Center Township. 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 Center Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Center Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Center Township is one of the twelve townships of Williams County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 2,928 people in the township.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 2,874 in 2010, 2,928 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Center Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
who passed away August 22, 1872. The child was taken into the family of an uncle. William Freyman, with whom she lived until the time of her marriage, her education being secured in the district schools of Center Township and the Fayette Normal School. After leaving the latter, she taught school for three terms in Center Township, but after her union with Mr. Newcomer her teaching career was terminated and they moved to a farm of 140 acres, in section 9, where they have since made their home. Through industry and intelligent
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 archiveAtlas of Williams County, Ohio - from county records, plats and surveys
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nobody well known was born in Center Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Center Township is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #718 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.
20% of Center Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.3 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1969.
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 Wikimedia Commons (6), 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.
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