Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 30% of U.S. towns · #853 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Below: maps from 1907 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 30% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Richland Township is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #853 of 993 in Ohio. 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 Richland 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 Richland Township’s history is told.
Three 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 Richland 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 Richland Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Richland Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Richland Township is one of the twelve townships of Defiance County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 3,063 people in the township.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 2,920 to 3,063 (+5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Richland Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Parry and one Gibbon in building a new mill, which he afterward purchased, and then sold out to John Brown, and bought a farm in Richland Township, occupying the same for about two years, during which time, 1872, he and Abraham Coy built the present grist mill at Ivansport, at a cost of $13,000, on the old site, or nearly so, of the old Pioneer Mill, built by Coys & Snider, which ceased to grind in 1868. In the fall of
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyNobody well known was born in Richland Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Richland Township is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #853 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.
12% of Richland Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.1 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1975.
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 (3), 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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