Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 91% of U.S. towns · #135 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
3 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1909 on, and old-book passages.
The Olive Township post office opened in 1822, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Dudley (1872) and Haga (1883), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 91% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Olive Township is more historic than 91% of U.S. towns, #135 of 993 in Ohio. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Olive Township’s 113 sits above most of its state (93% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 66 historic buildings outnumber those of 87% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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 Olive 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 Olive 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 Olive Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Olive Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Olive Township is one of the fifteen townships of Noble County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 5,724 people in the township.
Its first post office opened in 1822. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 5,852 to 5,724 (-2%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Olive Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
"Olive Township, Guernsey County, \vas organized June 3, 1810, from a part of Buffalo Township, which was erected in 1810. The Guernsey County line, prior to the erection of Morgan County in 1819, ran east and west through tlie center of what is now Olive Township. The orig-
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.
In the archiveIllustrated atlas of Noble County, Ohio - published from actual surveys
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Olive Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Olive Township post office opened in 1822, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Olive Township is more historic than 91% of U.S. towns, #135 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.
20% of Olive Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1967.
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 (4), 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.
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