Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 30% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: maps from 1950 on and the census since 2000.
More historic than 30% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Jackson Township is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns. 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 Jackson 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 Jackson Township’s history is told.
Another post office, Bowie, 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Jackson Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Jackson Township is a township in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,181 at the 2020 census, a decrease from the figure of 1,273 in 2010.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,273 to 1,178 (-7%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Jackson Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
In 1807 John Barnes entered the township, and located on a farm near Pardoe Station. He had previonsly settled in Jackson Township, where he and his brother Thomas had secured a farm numbering 100 acres of rich land. Barnes was an Irishman. His sympathy with that race induced those of his fellow-countrymen who entered the township to settle near him. Thus the settlement known as Irishtown originated.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
daughters. Of this number one son, Joseph, still lives in West Virginia, and three daughters, Hannah, Amelia Ann and Nancy, live respectively in Michigan, Washington Territory and Mercer. John Pew was one of the first settlers in that portion of Jackson Township in which he located. North and east of him were the Zahnisers, the Wilsons, the Forkers and others, who had preceded him by some seven or eight years. Of John’s other sons, brothers of Samuel, the second, Abraham, was well known in Mercer County. He died May 1, 1882, at the advanced age of eighty-six years, and his remains lie in
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 Jackson 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 Jackson Township.
Between 1,182 and 1,273 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Jackson Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Jackson Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Jackson Township is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns. 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 Jackson Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.5 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1978.
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 (6), 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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