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AHistory
History · Lawrence Township

14% of Lawrence Township’s homes were built before 1940

More historic than 86% of U.S. towns · #227 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it

1 place in town is on the National Register. Below: maps from 1901 on and old-book passages.

1on the National Register
14%homes built before 1940
Photo: Roseohioresident · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

About Lawrence Township’s history

How historic is Lawrence Township?

A

More historic than 86% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
History grade

What drives Lawrence Township’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lawrence Township is more historic than 86% of U.S. towns, #227 of 993 in Ohio. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.

A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Lawrence Township’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 86%
NewerOlder
Ohio towns of 2,500+ (993)Ahead of 77%

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 Lawrence Township’s 56.8 sits above most of its state (90% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 77 historic buildings outnumber those of 88% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.7 points).

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 →

What stands out about Lawrence Township’s past

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

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Lawrence Township’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Places that used to be

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

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

Bowdil
1821–1936
North Lawrence
1854–today
Newman
1889–1906
18201920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Brimestone CornersForty Corners VillageNewmanNorth LawrencePaulsTop of the Hill Mobile Home ParkUrban Hill
Gone or out of use
Newman Post Officepost office
6cemeteries and burying grounds inside Lawrence Township
ClapperKurtzNewmanNewman CreekOld PresbyterianPleasant View

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

On the map

Lawrence Township on the map, 1901 to 1994

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

Lawrence Township on the 1901 USGS mapLawrence Township on the 1961 USGS mapLawrence Township on the 1970 USGS mapLawrence Township on the 1994 USGS map1901Massillon 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 Lawrence Township.

The story so far

Lawrence Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Lawrence Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Lawrence Township is one of the seventeen townships of Stark County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 13,548 people in the township.

Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 13,702 in 2010, 13,548 in 2020.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Lawrence Township in 1916

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

Canal Fulton Canal Fulton is located in the northwestern corner of Stark County in Lawrence Township. The town as originally laid out in 1814 was located on the west side of the Tuscarawas River and was called Milan. Later, as it grew in size, it spread across the river and the name was
A standard history of Stark County, Ohio1916 · page 521Read the page →
Read the text

Canal Fulton Canal Fulton is located in the northwestern corner of Stark County in Lawrence Township. The town as originally laid out in 1814 was located on the west side of the Tuscarawas River and was called Milan. Later, as it grew in size, it spread across the river and the name 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.

Timeline

Lawrence Township, 1821 to 1936

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1821Post officeThe Bowdil post office opens
  3. 1854Post officeThe North Lawrence post office opens
  4. 1889Post officeThe Newman post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1901On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  7. 1906Post officeThe Newman post office closes
  8. 1936Post officeThe Bowdil post office closes
By decade

Lawrence Township, decade by decade

On the National Register

1 listing protects 77 historic buildings

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
77
each building in a district counts

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Questions about Lawrence Township’s history

How does Lawrence Township rank for history?

Lawrence Township is more historic than 86% of U.S. towns, #227 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.

How old are the homes in Lawrence Township?

14% of Lawrence Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.7 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1975.

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 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.