Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register. Below: maps from 1911 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Salem Township is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings 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 Salem Township’s 8.6 sits above most of its state (72% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 Salem 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 Salem 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 Salem Township.
From Wikipedia’s history of Salem Township.
Salem Township derives its name from the town of the same name mentioned in the Bible. The settlement of Salem, among the first in the Northwest Territory, was founded by a group of Moravian Christians, both European and Native American (Christian Munsee and Christian Mohican), led by the Christian missionary John Heckewelder.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Salem Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Tuscarawas. On the 3d day of March, 1780, the last service was held at Lichtenau. The chapel was then demolished that it might not be applied to heathenish purposes, and the converts proceeded by land and water up the river into what is now Salem Township, Tuscarawas County, and there on the site of an old Delaware village founded the town of Salem. It was situated one and a half miles southwest of Port Washington, on a beautiful plain, just opposite three bold hill-tops, and between the present track of the Pan Handle Railroad and the Tuscarawas River. With the assistance of the other two
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The earliest settlements in what is now Salem Township was made in the Salem tract, and in the 4,000-acre tract northeast of it. The former, like the Gnadenhutten tract in Clay Township, was first occupied by a few Moravian emigrants from Pennsylvania, who leased farming lots on the tract usually for a term of thirty-three years. Isaac and Peter Good, two brothers, were here in 1804. They were from Virginia. Isaac, who was a blacksmith, first settled a short distance below Port Washington, and Peter on Buckhorn. David Williams and Aaron Cory were living on the Salem tract as early as 1802.
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.
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 Salem Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Salem Township is more historic than 76% 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.
19% of Salem Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.4 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1982.
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 (2), Wikipedia, 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.
2016
2015
