Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Thomas Marshall House. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1968 on, and the census since 1880.
Dayton dates its founding to 1850 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1880.
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 Dayton’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Dayton.
The Thomas Marshall House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and is home to the Dayton Area Local History Society.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Peaked at 1,049 in 1920; 549 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Dayton’s Wikipedia page.
Passages that mention Dayton, cut from the printed page as they were published.
transporting ore and metal from and to the Allegheny Valley Railroad, which lias proved to be very successful. It is designated on the township map the Pine Creek & Dayton Railroad, so named because the people of the borough of Dayton, in this county, and of the valley of Pine creek, have evinced considerable interest in its extension to Dayton, but as yet without securing the requisite
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
select a name which had not been given to any other place, or at least to any postoffice, in this State. Some one present, it is not remembered who, suggested Dayton, which name, it is thought, occurred to the suggestor by reason of some mental association of his with Dayton, Ohio, which was named after Jonathan Dayton, one of the agents who efifected a
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The petition of divers citizens of the town of Dayton for its incorporation into a borough, under the general borough acts, was filed in the proper court on the 3d, approved by the grand jury on the 5th of March, and finally approved by the court on June 5, 1873, when the usual decree was made, and the town duly declared to be incorporated into the borough of Dayton, with these boun-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Calhoun settlement in the northwestern part of the township, one in the Beck settlement in the southwestern part, another two miles north of Dayton, and one about the same distance southwest of that borough. In i860 the number of schools was 10; average months taught, 4 ; male teachers, 7 ; female teachers, 3 ; average salaries of male,
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.
In the archiveDayton PA Presby PHS162
Born hereRay Mathews is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Dayton. 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 Dayton.
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 Dayton’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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
In 1850, according to Wikidata. Dayton’s post office opened in 1855, and the census of 1880 counted 579 people here.
One place: the Thomas Marshall House (listed 1976).
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 (3), 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), 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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