Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 47% of U.S. towns · #694 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Griffith Breese Farm. Most of Shawnee Township was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1974. Below: maps from 1906 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 47% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Shawnee Township is more historic than 47% of U.S. towns, #694 of 993 in Ohio. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls 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 Shawnee Township’s 3.2 sits near the middle of its state (57% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% 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 Shawnee 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 Shawnee 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 Shawnee Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Shawnee Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Shawnee Township is one of the twelve townships of Allen County, Ohio, United States. The population was 12,482 at the 2020 census.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 12,433 in 2010, 12,482 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Shawnee Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Hume Village, Section 20, Shawnee Township, was platted as a railroad town. The Lake Erie & Western Railroad intersects the Tillage ; twenty-two lots lying northwest of the railroad and fifty-seven lots southwest. Main Street rons parallel with the railroad ; Grider Street nins due north and Spencer Street due west It is the center of a rich agricnltoral district, about eight miles southwest of Lima by railroad, and ten by pike-road, within the limits of the old Hog Creek reservation.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Hume Village, Section 29, Shawnee Township, was platted asa railroad town. The Lake Erie & Western Railroad intersects the village ; twenty-two lots lying northwest of the railroad and fifty-seven lots southwest. Main Street runs parallel with the railroad ; Crider Street runs due north and Spencer Street due west. It is the center of a rich agricultural district, about eight miles southwest of Lima by railroad, and ten by pike-road, within the limits of the old Hog Creek reservation.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
river crossings were all at shallow places prior to the early bridges ; the first bridge authorized by the county was in 1839; it was built across Little Hog Creek at Shawnee Township at a cost of $50; this was at a point where the present Dixie Highway crosses the creek on the Wapakoneta road. (It is a unique thing in Allen County history that two such famous roads as the Lincoln and Dixie highways should intersect within its borders. No other Ohio county can boast that distinction.) The early trails, traces and tracks of Allen County were once a scrambled network,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
and to include the Shawanese settlement on Hog Creek, and to be laid off as nearly as possible in a square form, and the above described Indian reservation has since become the most wealthy rural baliwick in the United States of America. Shawnee Township is the historic ground in Allen County today. The defeat of the American Indian in northwestern Ohio was one thing and his removal to the western reservations was quite another, but the day came when there were no Indians in Allen County. There
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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Shawnee Township is more historic than 47% of U.S. towns, #694 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.
One place: the Griffith Breese Farm (listed 1983).
6% of Shawnee Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.4 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1974.
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 (5), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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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