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C+History
History · Taylor Township

20% of Taylor Township’s homes were built before 1940

More historic than 45% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Below: maps from 1913 on and old-book passages.

0on the National Register
20%homes built before 1940
Photo: Nyttend · Public domain
Quick answers

About Taylor Township’s history

How historic is Taylor Township?

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More historic than 45% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
History grade

What drives Taylor Township’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Taylor Township is more historic than 45% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

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HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Taylor Township’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 45%
NewerOlder

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 Taylor 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.

How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.3 points).

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 →

What stands out about Taylor Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Taylor Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Taylor Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Another post office, Taylor Centre, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Taylor Centre
1857–1864
Broadway
1865–today
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
BroadwayParrott VillageTaylor Centre
Gone or out of use
Asbury SchoolschoolBokes Creek SchoolschoolBraum SchoolschoolCotton SlashlocaleHull SchoolschoolMiller SchoolschoolPhelps SchoolschoolShirk SchoolschoolTaylor Centre Post Officepost officeTaylor SchoolschoolWest Blues Creek Schoolschool
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Taylor Township
AsburyBroadwayFordHamiltonMaskill

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

On the map

Taylor Township on the map, 1913 to 1973

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Taylor Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Taylor Township on the 1913 USGS mapTaylor Township on the 1944 USGS mapTaylor Township on the 1961 USGS mapTaylor Township on the 1973 USGS map1913Richwood sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Taylor Township.

The story so far

Taylor Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Taylor Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Taylor Township is one of the fourteen townships of Union County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 1,516 people in the township.

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,560 to 1,516 (-3%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Taylor Township in 1883

Passages that mention Taylor Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.

About 1854-55, Thomas and James Yearsley built a steam saw-mill, just west of the village of Broadway, which was the first mill in Taylor Township. The above parties continued to run this mill most of the time until it went out of use, about 1868. This mill did an extensive business, sawing nearly …
The History of Union County, Ohio, containing a history of the county1883 · page 679Read the page →
Read the text

About 1854-55, Thomas and James Yearsley built a steam saw-mill, just west of the village of Broadway, which was the first mill in Taylor Township. The above parties continued to run this mill most of the time until it went out of use, about 1868. This mill did an extensive business, sawing nearly all the lumber for the first frame houses of this neighborhood and vicinity. At one time the}' had attached a " corn-cracker," which did considerable business for a few years. About 1857-58, Messrs. Brown & Shaw erected a steam saw-mill, located about five miles south of Broadwaj^, on the Marysville pike, which continued in

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
east and southeast, as is indicated by the course of the streams. The principal streams are Bokes Creek, which enters this township from York and flows eastward through the northern portion into Leesburg. Blues Creek rises in the western part of Taylor Township and flows eastward. Mill Creek course…
The History of Union County, Ohio, containing a history of the county1883 · page 675Read the page →
Read the text

east and southeast, as is indicated by the course of the streams. The principal streams are Bokes Creek, which enters this township from York and flows eastward through the northern portion into Leesburg. Blues Creek rises in the western part of Taylor Township and flows eastward. Mill Creek courses through the southeast corner of the township, entering from Liberty, and passing out into Paris. Along this stream and in the southeast portion of the township, were located the first settlers. The soil is deep, rich and productive; along the creek bottoms and the low, flat portions, it is a black loani, and the

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.

Timeline

Taylor Township, 1857 to 1913

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1857Post officeThe Taylor Centre post office opens
  3. 1864Post officeThe Taylor Centre post office closes
  4. 1865Post officeThe Broadway post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1913On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Taylor Township, decade by decade

Famous people

Famous people close to Taylor Township

Nobody well known was born in Taylor Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Questions about Taylor Township’s history

How does Taylor Township rank for history?

Taylor Township is more historic than 45% 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.

How old are the homes in Taylor Township?

20% of Taylor Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.3 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1986.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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.