Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Vjaquish · CC BY-SA 3.0Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1945 on, and the census since 1880.
Meshoppen Township dates its founding to 1775 (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 Meshoppen Township’s history is told.
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 - Wyoming County - Meshoppen - ED 66…
In the archiveMeshoppen PA 1st Presby PHS358
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Meshoppen Township.
The borough takes its name from Meshoppen Creek, a Native American name purported to mean "glass beads."
The Old White Mill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Meshoppen 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 Meshoppen 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 Meshoppen Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 326 and 630 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Meshoppen Township’s Wikipedia page.
Another post office, Black Walnut, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1775, according to Wikidata. Meshoppen Township’s post office opened in 1870, and the census of 1880 counted 554 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 (6), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
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