The story
Read it all →How Oil Creek Township came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Oil Creek Township.
The Bridge in Oil Creek Township was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
A−History
History · Oil Creek Township
Oil Creek Township’s post office opened in 1817, and 22% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Bridge in Oil Creek Township. Below: maps from 1927 on and the census since 2000.
1817first post office
1on the National Register
22%homes built before 1940
Quick answers
How Oil Creek Township began
When was Oil Creek Township founded?
1817
The Oil Creek Township post office opened in 1817, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Oil Creek (1817), Kerr's Hill (1858) and East Titusville (1879), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 1,880 in 20002020 census: 1,702209 years
How historic is Oil Creek Township?
A−
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 82% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Oil Creek Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Oil Creek Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Oil Creek Township is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Oil Creek Township’s overall grade.
Founding era1817, from the first post office: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA−Homes built before 194022.4% of homes (±8.6) · typical PA town 17.7% · U.S. 8.4%B+National Register1 listing, 5.8 per 10,000 residents · typical PA town 2.1 · U.S. 2.4B
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 82%
NewerOlder
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 Oil Creek Township’s 5.8 sits above most of its state (69% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.6 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). 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 →
What stands out about Oil Creek 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 Oil Creek Township, and 3 old place names are still on the map.A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Oil Creek Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1817: 209 years of Oil Creek 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.
Oil Creek
Kerr's Hill
East Titusville
Kerr
Gresham
18101920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
East TitusvilleGreshamThompsons Mills
Gone or out of use
Church Run Oil FieldoilfieldThompson Creek ChurchchurchVosburgh Airportairport
8cemeteries and burying grounds inside Oil Creek Township
CurryGilson RidgeGreenwoodKerr HillSaint WalburgaShelmadineTubbsUnion
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Oil Creek Township’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Oil Creek Township’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.Timeline
Oil Creek Township, 1817 to 1927
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1817Post officeThe Oil Creek post office opens
- 1858Post officeThe Kerr's Hill post office opens
- 1863Post officeThe Kerr's Hill post office closes
- 1879Post officeThe East Titusville post office opens
- 1882Post officeThe Oil Creek post office closes
- 20th century
- 1904Post officeThe East Titusville post office closes
- 1927
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
From the old history books
What they wrote about Oil Creek Township in 1885
Passages that mention Oil Creek Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
history of crawford county, pennsylvania1885 · page 582Read the page →
Read the text
400 acre tracts. Those in the western, northern and eastern parts were taken up by the Holland Land Company. Maj. Roger Alden was the agent and it is said that in having the tracts surveyed “he reserved sixty-six tracts for himself, including those in the central and southern portions of Oil Creek Township. Settlers, however, arrived and took possession of the tracts, regardless of his claims. Compromises were often effected between Alden and the occupant, but the latter not uncommonly retained the land by virtue of his settlement.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
history of crawford county, pennsylvania1885 · page 583Read the page →
Read the text
A prominent pioneer family was the Currys, three brothers—James, William and Samuel. They were of Irish extraction, and came very early with their father, John Curry, from Center to Venango County, and a little later the three boys settled on the ridge near the center of Oil Creek Township, where they remained till death. They were Presbyterians. Other early settlers, all of whom dated their advent into Oil Creek Township prior to 1810, some many years before, were William, Robert, James and John Alcorn, Burnett Davis, Robert Glenn, Adam Holliday, William Hagan,
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.
By decade
Oil Creek Township, decade by decade
2024
2024
2024
2014
2014On the map
Oil Creek Township on the map, 1927 to 1973
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Oil Creek Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1927Titusville sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Oil Creek Township.
On the National Register
1 historic place in Oil Creek Township
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1988
Bridge in Oil Creek Township
Structures
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
People over time
Oil Creek Township, census by census
Between 1,701 and 1,880 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Oil Creek Township’s Wikipedia page.
Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Oil Creek Township
Nobody well known was born in Oil Creek Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Oil Creek Township’s history
What year was Oil Creek Township founded?
The Oil Creek Township post office opened in 1817, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Oil Creek Township rank for history?
Oil Creek Township is more historic than 82% 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.
What is on the National Register in Oil Creek Township?
One place: the Bridge in Oil Creek Township (listed 1988).
How old are the homes in Oil Creek Township?
22% of Oil Creek Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.6 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1968.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.