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B−History
History · Copley Township

Copley Township’s post office opened in 1841, and 2 of its places are on the National Register

More historic than 52% of U.S. towns · #629 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it

Most of Copley Township was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1992. Its Register listings are the Copley Depot and the Copley Township Cemetery Receiving Vault. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1903 on, and old-book passages.

1841first post office
2on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
From Copley Township’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Copley Township began

When was Copley Township founded?

1841

The Copley Township post office opened in 1841, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Yellow Creek (1834), Copley Centre (1835) and Copley (1841), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 18,403185 years

How historic is Copley Township?

B−

More historic than 52% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Copley Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Copley Township’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Copley Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #629 of 993 in Ohio. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Copley Township’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 52%
NewerOlder
Ohio towns of 2,500+ (993)Ahead of 37%

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 Copley Township’s 1.1 sits near the middle of its state (49% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% 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 (±1.2 points) is firm at this size. 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 Copley Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Four other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Yellow Creek
1834–1849
Copley Centre
1835–1841
Copley
1841–1957
Paxton
1894–1915
18301930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
CopleyMontrosePigeon CreekStoney Hill
Gone or out of use
Copley Post Officepost officePaxton Post Officepost office
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Copley Township
CopleyMontroseStimson

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Start Copley Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Copley Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
On the map

Copley Township on the map, 1903 to 1994

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Copley Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Copley Township on the 1903 USGS mapCopley Township on the 1958 USGS mapCopley Township on the 1969 USGS mapCopley Township on the 1979 USGS mapCopley Township on the 1994 USGS map1903Akron 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 Copley Township.

The story

How Copley Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Copley Township.

Read it all →

Variant names were Greenfield and Copley Center. The first settlement at Copley Center was made around 1819. The community was named for its location near the geographical center of Copley Township. A post office called Copley Centre was established in 1835, the name was changed to Copley in 1841, and the post office closed in 1957.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Copley Township in 1881

Passages that mention Copley Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Co.. N. Y., locating at first in Tallmadge Township, but the following year moved to Northampton Township. In 1817, they moved to Copley Township, locating on Lot 22. This was the first settlement in Copley Township. At the time of his settlement in Copley, Mr.
History of Summit County, Ohio1881 · page 1029Read the page →
Read the text

Co.. N. Y., locating at first in Tallmadge Township, but the following year moved to Northampton Township. In 1817, they moved to Copley Township, locating on Lot 22. This was the first settlement in Copley Township. At the time of his settlement in Copley, Mr.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
He returned the next year, by the same route, to Copley Township, and engaged in farming. In 1864, he moved to the village of Copley Center and taught school for a time. In 1866, he leased a farm in the vicinity, and operated it until 1873, when he came to Akron and assumed the office of County Cle…
History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio1881 · page 803Read the page →
Read the text

He returned the next year, by the same route, to Copley Township, and engaged in farming. In 1864, he moved to the village of Copley Center and taught school for a time. In 1866, he leased a farm in the vicinity, and operated it until 1873, when he came to Akron and assumed the office of County Clerk, to which he had been elected the 3-ear previous. He filled

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

Copley Township, 1834 to 1957

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1834Post officeThe Yellow Creek post office opens
  3. 1835Post officeThe Copley Centre post office opens
  4. 1841Post officeThe Copley Centre post office closes
  5. 1841Post officeThe Copley post office opens
  6. 1849Post officeThe Yellow Creek post office closes
  7. 20th century
  8. 1903On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  9. 1957Post officeThe Copley post office closes
By decade

Copley Township, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
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.

Arnold House
Retake this viewArnold House

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Copley Township’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

2 historic places in Copley Township

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
2001
Copley Depot
BuildingsStructures

Architectural styles listings

Stick/Eastlake1

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Copley Township

Nobody well known was born in Copley Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Questions about Copley Township’s history

What year was Copley Township founded?

The Copley Township post office opened in 1841, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Copley Township rank for history?

Copley Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #629 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.

What is on the National Register in Copley Township?

Two places: the Copley Depot (listed 2001) and the Copley Township Cemetery Receiving Vault (2017).

How old are the homes in Copley Township?

3% of Copley Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1992.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, 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.