Most of Charlestown Township was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Below: maps from 1906 on and old-book passages.
The Charlestown Township post office opened in 1820, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Charlestown (1820), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 1,735206 years
How historic is Charlestown Township?
C+
More historic than 42% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Charlestown Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Charlestown Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Charlestown Township is more historic than 42% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Charlestown 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 Charlestown 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 (±4.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Charlestown 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
Another post office, Charlestown, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Hamlets and corners on the map
AugerburgCharlestownCountryside EstatesEast DavisEdgewood Mobile Home ParkGreenleafs CornersMaple Del Manor
Gone or out of use
Charlestown Post Officepost officeCharlestown StationlocaleGreenleaf Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Charlestown Township
Charlestown Township
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
On the map
Charlestown Township on the map, 1906 to 1994
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Charlestown Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1906Ravenna 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 Charlestown Township.
The story so far
Charlestown Township, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Charlestown Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Charlestown Township is one of the eighteen townships of Portage County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 1,735 people in the township.
Its first post office opened in 1820. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,799 to 1,735 (-4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Charlestown Township in 1885
Passages that mention Charlestown Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Portage County, Ohio1885 · page 252Read the page →
Read the text
four acres of ground. He and Joseph Harris raised in partnership, in 1805, 1,500 bushels of corn. In 1803 Elijah Mason cleared twenty-two acres of land on Lot 23, Hiram Township, which he planted in wheat the same year. John Campbell raised the first corn in Charlestown Township in 1805, having removed there from Deerfield, where he first settled. In 1806 John and George Haymaker sowed a small patch of corn on the bank of the Cuyahoga, in Franklin Township, and the next year built a grist-mill on that stream.
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
Charlestown Township, 1820 to 1906
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Charlestown Township post office opened in 1820, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Charlestown Township rank for history?
Charlestown Township is more historic than 42% 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.
How old are the homes in Charlestown Township?
7% of Charlestown Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.2 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1980.
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 Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
