Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 94% of U.S. towns · #92 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Hamilton-Ickes House. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1905 on, and the census since 1820.
Smithfield Township dates its founding to 1803 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1820.
More historic than 94% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Smithfield Township is more historic than 94% of U.S. towns, #92 of 993 in Ohio. All 3 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 Smithfield Township’s 16.9 sits above most of its state (80% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 5 historic buildings outnumber those of 70% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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.
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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Smithfield Township’s history is told.
Peaked at 1,312 in 1960; 869 people lived here in 2010.
18 censuses, 1820–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Smithfield Township’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Smithfield Township.
Smithfield was platted in 1803. A post office called Smithfield has been in operation since 1814.
Confederate general John Hunt Morgan traveled through Smithfield during the 1863 Morgan's Raid on his way to defeat at the Battle of Salineville in the American Civil War.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereWilliam Sharon is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveSmithfield School 1910One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Smithfield 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 Smithfield Township.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Smithfield Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
In 1803, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Smithfield Township’s post office opened in 1814, and the census of 1820 counted 243 people here.
Smithfield Township is more historic than 94% of U.S. towns, #92 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.
2 listings: 1 building, among them the Hamilton-Ickes House (listed 1980, the first). 5 historic buildings in all.
41% of Smithfield Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.7 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1948.
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 (6), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
Date?
2016
2016
2015
2015
2004
