Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 64% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: old-book passages.
More historic than 64% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Orange Township is more historic than 64% 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 Orange 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 Orange 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Orange Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Orange Township is one of the seventeen townships of Hancock County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,301.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,348 to 1,301 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Orange Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Main, Nathaniel Main and Sabeers Main, and their wives then constituting the church. In 1852 or 1853 the society, which had obtained quite a large membership, erected a fi-ame building in the northeast corner of Section 23, and this was the first house of worship built in Orange Township. It is yet standing, and was used till the erection of the present brick edifice in 1871 immediately north of the old structure.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Orange Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Orange Township is more historic than 64% 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.
38% of Orange Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±18.0 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1972.
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), 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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