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History · Gaines Township

Gaines Township’s post office opened in 1849, and 17% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1971 on.

1849first post office
0on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Gaines Township began

When was Gaines Township founded?

1849

The Gaines Township post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Elk Run (1854), Gurnee (1883) and Manhattan (1891), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 608177 years
Founding year: the first Gaines Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Gaines Township’s past

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

Lost villages5 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Gaines Township, and 7 old place names are still on the map.A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Gaines Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1849: 177 years of Gaines Township.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be

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

Five other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Gaines
1849–today
Elk Run
1854–1904
Gurnee
1883–1902
Manhattan
1891–1910
Marshlands
1900–1913
Watrous
1921–1965
18401930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
GainesGaines JunctionGurneeManhattanMarshlandsRexfordWaltrous
Gone or out of use
Elk Run Post Officepost office
6cemeteries and burying grounds inside Gaines Township
BakerBrooksideKnowltonMattison - Lick RunPhoenixWatrous

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

Help out

Start Gaines Township’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Timeline

Gaines Township, 1849 to 1971

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1849Post officeThe Gaines post office opens
  3. 1854Post officeThe Elk Run post office opens
  4. 1883Post officeThe Gurnee post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1902Post officeThe Gurnee post office closes
  7. 1904Post officeThe Elk Run post office closes
  8. 1971On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story so far

Gaines Township, in brief

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

Gaines is an unincorporated community in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, United States. The community is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 6 and Pennsylvania Route 349, 4.6 miles (7.4 km) east-northeast of Galeton. Gaines has a post office with ZIP code 16921, which opened on August 8, 1849.

Its first post office opened in 1849. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 542 to 608 (+12%).

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

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Gaines Township on the map in 1971

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Gaines Township.

Gaines Township on the 1971 USGS map1971Marshlands sheet · 1:24,000

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Gaines Township

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

See all →
Charles MeredithAmerican actor · b. 1894
Kathryn CrawfordAmerican actress · b. 1908
William A. StoneAmerican politician, Pennsylvania · b. 1846
Ed SchieffelinProspector who discovered the Tombstone mining … · b. 1847
D
Dick RiffleAmerican football player · b. 1915
Horace Billings PackerAmerican politician · b. 1851
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Pike TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townShippen Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townClymer TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townElk TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Gaines Township’s history

What year was Gaines Township founded?

The Gaines Township post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.