Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1923 on, and the census since 2000.
Bastress Township dates its founding to 1837 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 2000.
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 Bastress 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).
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archive1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Pennsylvania - Lycoming County - Bastress - ED 41…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Bastress Township.
Bastress Township was formed from part of Susquehanna Township on December 13, 1854, by the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace of Lycoming County. The township is named in honor of Solomon Bastress of Jersey Shore, who was a former member of the legislature and an associate judge.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Bastress Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Bastress Township is one of the smallest in the county in point of area and the second smallest in point of population. It is the thirty-eighth in size, has an area of 6,400 acres and a population of 203. It was taken from Susquehanna Township by order of court December 18, 1854, and was named for Solomon Bastress, of Jersey Shore.
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bastress 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 Bastress 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 Bastress Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 528 and 574 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bastress Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Bastress Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1837, according to Wikidata. Bastress Township’s post office opened in 1857, and the census of 2000 counted 574 people here.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
2011
