Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns · #49 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
9 places in town are on the National Register. Below: maps from 1931 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Union Township is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #49 of 993 in Ohio. 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 Union Township’s 54.7 sits above most of its state (89% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 15 historic buildings outnumber those of 78% 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.
Four 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 Union Township’s history is told.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. 2 are National Historic Landmarks, the highest tier.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Union Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Union Township is one of the sixteen townships of Brown County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 2,739 people in the township.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 3,064 to 2,739 (-11%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Union Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The fractions of Union Township are No. 13, at Logan’s Gap; No. 15, at Fitch Bridge, and No. 16, at Martin’s Bridge. All the districts in the township have been furnished with improved school furniture. There is one colored school in the township. The house is located in Subdistrict No. 7; it is a box frame, and furnished with best school furniture. There is also a colored school in Aberdeen.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The fractions of Union Township are No. 13, at Logan’s Gap; No. 15, at Fitch Bridge, and No. 16, at Martin's Bridge. All the districts in the township have been furnished with improved school furniture. There is one colored school in the township. The house is located in Subdistrict No. 45 16199 box frame, and furnished with best school furniture. There is also a colored school in Aberdeen.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Upon the soil of Union Township were made some of the first settlements of Brown County, if not the first. While the border Indian warfare along the Ohio River was aggressive and bitter, and the feuds between the races raged at their intensest pitch, there were doubtless many stirring adventures and probably tragedies enacted within the present limits of our township, which are now forgotten. The bottom lands of Eagle Creek, a noted stream in those early times, for a mile or two from its mouth lie wholly within its territory, Red Oak courses through its center, and Straight Creek bounds it on
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Upon the soil of Union Township were made some of the first settlements of Brown County, if not the first. While the border Indian warfare along the Ohio River was aggressive and bitter, and the feuds between the races raged at their intensest pitch, there were doubtless many stirrmg adventures and probably tragedies enacted within the present limits of our township, which are now forgotten. The bottom lands of Eagle Creek, a noted stream in those early times, for a mile or two from its mouth lie wholly within its territory, Red Oak courses through its center, and Straight Creek bounds it on
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Union 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 Union Township.
Nobody well known was born in Union Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Union Township is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #49 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.
9 listings, 2 of them National Historic Landmarks: 5 buildings, among them the Henry Martin Farm (listed 1975, the first). 15 historic buildings in all.
31% of Union Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.8 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1962.
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 (7), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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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