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Bishop and Simmons Church farmsteadPhoto: Nyttend · Public domain
C+History
History · Milford Township

17% of Milford Township’s homes were built before 1940

More historic than 39% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1915 on, and the census since 1870.

0on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
From Milford Township’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

About Milford Township’s history

How historic is Milford Township?

C+

More historic than 39% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
History grade

What drives Milford Township’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Milford Township is more historic than 39% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Milford Township’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 39%
NewerOlder

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 Milford 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 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 (±11.8 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 Milford 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 Milford Township’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 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.

Lock
1838–1902
Milfordton
1848–1902
18301930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Five CornersLockMilfordtonMyers Corners
Gone or out of use
Beech Knob SchoolschoolBishop SchoolschoolCamp SchoolschoolLock Post Officepost officeMilfordton Post Officepost officeMink Street SchoolschoolUpdike Schoolschool
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Milford Township
DowellFive CornersHallHallMoreland

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

On the map

Milford Township on the map, 1915 to 1974

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

Milford Township on the 1915 USGS mapMilford Township on the 1943 USGS mapMilford Township on the 1961 USGS mapMilford Township on the 1974 USGS map1915Fredericktown 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 Milford Township.

The story

How Milford Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Milford Township.

Read it all →

The area covering the City of Milford, O'Bannon (Miami) Township, and part of the City of Loveland is from a single 1788 survey by John Nancarrow, a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia. As one of Clermont County's major historians noted, "No wonder, then, that it struck with rapture the quaint and eccentric John Nancarrow, who had it surveyed for him on May 28, 1788 as Dutch burgomaster intended to found a city that should become the future metropolis of the West." O'Bannon Township was named after O'Bannon Creek, which itself was named for Clermont's first surveyor who was not connected to, responsible for, or interested at all in Nancarrow's survey area.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Milford Township, 1838 to 1968

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1838Post officeThe Lock post office opens
  3. 1848Post officeThe Milfordton post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1902Post officeThe Lock post office closes
  6. 1902Post officeThe Milfordton post office closes
  7. 1915On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  8. 1968In the archiveDESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE BRIDGE SUBSTRUCTURE-CONCRETE ABUTMENTS - Milford Bridge, Sp…
By decade

Milford Township, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1970s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
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.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE BRIDGE SUBSTRUCTURE-CONCRETE ABUTMENTS - Milford Bridge, Spanning Little Miami River on U…
Retake this viewDESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE BRIDGE SUBSTRUCTURE-CONCRETE ABUTMENTS - Milford Bridge, Spanning Little Miami River on U…, 1968

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Milford Township, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,0004,5005,0005,5006,0006,5007,0007,50018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 6,709

Between 621 and 6,709 people in every census since 1870.

16 censuses, 1870–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Milford Township’s Wikipedia page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Questions about Milford Township’s history

How does Milford Township rank for history?

Milford Township is more historic than 39% 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 Milford Township?

17% of Milford Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±11.8 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1993.

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), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.