Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domainMore historic than 51% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1908 on, and old-book passages.
More historic than 51% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Franklin Township is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns. 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 Franklin 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 Franklin 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 Franklin 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 Franklin Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Franklin Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Franklin Township is one of the twenty-two townships of Coshocton County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census reported 1,165 people living in the township.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,229 to 1,165 (-5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Franklin Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Franklin Township had Frew's Mill, now Wills Creek. Linton Township, when it couldn't ford the creek, ferried at Jacobsport, now Plainfield. then the home of a tannery. A toll bridge succeeded the ferry. There was a ferry at Linton Mills. A mill was the beginning of Bacon Run. Maysville flickered about a blacksmith's forge, then flickered out. Folks in that section were digging deep wells, and from everv sixty gallons of water pumped up they extracted a bushel of salt.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
" In 1802, Franklin Township was organized, embracing all of Portage and parte of Trumbull and Summit Counties. About this time the settlement received accessions from all parts of the East. In February, 1801, Rev. Badger came and began his labors, and two years later Dr. Shadrac Bostwick organized a Methodist Episcopal church.* The remaining settlement in this county. Palmyra, was
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
" In 1802, Franklin Township was organized, embracing all of Portage and parts of Trumbull and Summit Counties. About this time the settlement received accessions from all parts of the East. In February, 1801, Kev. Badger came and began his labors, and two years later Dr. Shadrac Bostwiek organized a Methodist Episcopal church.* The remaining settlement in this county. Palmyra, was
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.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Franklin Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Franklin Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Franklin Township is more historic than 51% 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.
24% of Franklin 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 1973.
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 (3), 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.
Date?
2015
2014
