Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 29% of U.S. towns · #856 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Below: maps from 1911 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 29% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Swan Creek Township is more historic than 29% of U.S. towns, #856 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 Swan Creek 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 Swan Creek 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 Swan Creek 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 Swan Creek Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Swan Creek Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Swan Creek Township is one of the twelve townships of Fulton County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 8,555.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 8,566 in 2010, 8,555 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Swan Creek Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
would be not more than $200. A frame schoolhouse was built for $175, in 1839, by James Dean, to supply the needs of School District No. 1 (Swanton), Wing Township, Lucas county; and School District No. 2, of Swan Creek Township, on April 23, 1843, voted, “on motion of Mr. Thresher” that “a frame schoolhouse he built, the size of the one in District No. 1, in this town, near the house of L. Dodge” ; and further voted “that Two Hundred Dollars be assessed to erect said Schoolhouse,” nine residents voting, six in favor of the motion.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Schools Much of the early school history of Swan Creek Township is told elsewhere. For District No. 1, a frame schoolhouse, probably the first frame schoolhouse in the county, was built in 1839, at a cost of $175.00. In all probability, it was preceded by a log house, such as was the case in the organization of most of the pioneer school districts.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Following his marriage Mr. Merrill moved to Henry county, Ohio, where he first leased a farm, but later bought one and conducted it until 1892, when he came to Fulton county, and spent two years in Swan Creek Township. He then bought a farm in Putnam county, Ohio, and lived on it for two years, or until he sold it, at which time he came back to Swan Creek Township, buying the seventy-nine acre farm now owned by his heirs, and on it he passed away on December 2, 1908. ;
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
his father, but after three years in that state decided that he preferred Ohio to the west, and returned to Fulton county, renting land in York Township for several vears. He then bought eighty acres of woodland in Swan Creek Township, which he cleared and improved, and made it his home until 1915. In that year he bought thirtv acres of land in Swan Creek Township, on which he is now living, renting his larger farm. Since coming to this farm he has
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 Swan Creek Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Swan Creek Township is more historic than 29% of U.S. towns, #856 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.
11% of Swan Creek Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.6 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1978.
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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