Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 44% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 34 old photos and papers, maps from 1911 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, Jackson Township is more historic than 44% 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 Jackson 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.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1910On the road to Canter's Cave
1936Newsboys
1936Kids
1936Sunday dinner
1936Iron furnace
1936Iron furnace
1936Grocery window
1936Farm Bureau Cooperative Association
1936Street scene, Sunday afternoon
1936Newsboys admiring sporting goods
1936Interior of rehabilitation client's house
1936Interior of rehabilitation client's house
1936Interior of rehabilitation client's cabin
1936Street scene, Saturday afternoon
1936Sunday morning visiting between neighbors
1936Children playing in junk pile
1936Untitled photo, possibly related to: Newsboys
1936Untitled photo, possibly related to: Newsboys
1936Untitled photo, possibly related to: Kids
1936Untitled photo, possibly related to: Kids
1936Untitled photo, possibly related to: Kids
1936Untitled photo, possibly related to: Kids
1936Rehabilitation client looking over farm implements
1936Two old men on main street
1936Well, common source of water supply
1936Well, common source of water supply
1936Gravestones and monument in dealer's window
1936Untitled photo, possibly related to: Sunday dinner
1936Children's art work in window of school
1936Young fellows in front of pool hall
1936Small-town home example of "American baroque," Jackso…
1936Untitled photo, possibly related to: Iron furnace
1936Untitled photo, possibly related to: Iron furnace
1936Untitled photo, possibly related to: Iron furnaceEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Jackson 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 Jackson Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Jackson Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Jackson Township is one of the fifteen townships of Pickaway County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 1,098 people in the township.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,132 to 1,098 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Jackson Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
at the age of twenty-five in 1903, by being elected Constable in Jackson Township. In 1905, Wayne Families was elected Clerk of Jackson Township, and also served as the Clerk of the Jackson Township Board of Education. Wayne’s next public service position began in 1912, when he was named Jackson Township Assessor.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
One particular diverse section of the Big Darby Creek was a series of four riffles located directly upstream of the State Route 104 bridge in Jackson Township. Eventually, this series of riffles would come to be known as Trautman’s Riffles due to the extensive fish surveys that Milton Trautman would conduct there throughout the early-mid 1900’s. This riffle system is probably most wellknown for being the only location in the world from which the Scioto Madtom Noturus trautmani has ever been taken. The Scioto
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 Jackson Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Jackson Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Fox, 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).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Jackson Township is more historic than 44% 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.
20% of Jackson Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±15.2 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1977.
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 the Library of Congress (34), 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.
