Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Mvincec · Public domainBelow: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1907 on, and the census since 1880.
Parker Township dates its founding to 1797 (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 Parker Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Parker 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 Parker Township.
Another post office, Glenora, 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Parker Township.
A post office called Parker's Landing was established in 1871. In 1894, its name was changed to Parkers Landing and in 1950, the name was changed to Parker. It remains in operation to the present. Parker appears in the 1876 Atlas of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Parker Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Prior to 1819, the settlers in Parker Township suffered much inconvenience from a lack of grist mills, in many cases long distances having to be traversed in order to have their grain ground, and when Benjamin Fletcher erected his log grist-mill at Martinsburg (now Bruin), he was looked on almost as a public benefactor. Several years later, John Shryock established a mill on Silver Creek, not far from the Washington Township line, and in 1824 William Turner built a grist mill on the north branch of Beaver Creek. Other mills
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Parker Township, lying on the Armstrong County line and just north of Donegal Township, was especially noted in the seventies for its rich deposits of oil. Prior to 1872, it was regarded as an agricultural section, and on account of its deep streams, well adapted to manufacturing, iron ore was also mined. The name of Parker commemorates a family who have every right to lay claim to the honor of being the first settlers. John Parker, of Westmoreland County, was sent to this section to survey a large tract of land for a man
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.
In the archiveView from Cave Rock
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveParker PA 1st Presby PHS4432 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Parker Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 695 and 1,835 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Parker Township’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1797, according to Wikidata. Parker Township’s post office opened in 1878, and the census of 1880 counted 1,835 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 (3), the Library of Congress (2), 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.
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