Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 31% of U.S. towns · #942 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Below: maps from 1908 on and the census since 2000.
More historic than 31% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Forward Township is more historic than 31% of U.S. towns, #942 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
Pennsylvania towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Pennsylvania town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Forward Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (25% of Pennsylvania 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 Forward Township’s history is told.
Three 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 Forward 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 Forward Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Forward Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Forward Township is a township in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,164 at the 2020 census.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 2,531 to 3,164 (+25%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Forward Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
as Evansburg and Evansboro. Its growth was slow and uncertain until the coming of the railroad in 1878, since which time its growth has been rapid. The borough is located on Breakneck Creek, lying partly in Jackson and partly in Forward Township. Before any white settlement had been made, the site was a favorite camping ground of the Delaware Indians. The French, during their occupation of the Ohio Valley, were familiar with this spot, and gave Breakneck Creek the name of Casse-cou-anse. Robert Boggs, in
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The forerunner of the oil developments in Forward Township was the Evans well, which was drilled in 1872 near Buhl’s bridge, on Connoquenessing Creek.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A schoolhouse of this description was early built in Forward Township, and in it pupils from Peun received instruction. Probably the fir.st schoolhouse in the township was a small log building which stood on the Jacob Hartzell farm. Here "Master" Sterrett taught school, and a little later John Boyle, a "terror to evil doers and little boys." Funston was the name of an-
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 SurveyBetween 2,531 and 3,164 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Forward Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Forward Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Forward Township is more historic than 31% of U.S. towns, #942 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. 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.
12% of Forward Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.7 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1991.
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 (2), 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.
2009
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