Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1910 on and old-book passages.
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 Venango Township’s history is told.
Three other post offices 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Venango 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 Venango Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Venango Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Venango Township is a township that is located in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 869 at the time of the 2020 census.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 868 in 2010, 866 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Venango Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Settlement was made very early in Venango Township, probably in 1792, when it is known that Thomas Jolly visited this section, but did not establish his permanent residence here until 1796, when he came with companions to accept the offer of the owner of what we know as the Field tract, the latter giving a deed for 150 acres of land. Thomas Jolly and his companions lived together in a log cabin through the first year, and then returned east for their families.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Eau Claire, formerly called Farmington, in Venango Township, was surveyed in 1848 on John Rosenberry’s farm, and in June, 1849, William H. Tebay built and occupied the first house at this place.
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 SurveyNobody well known was born in Venango Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
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 (2), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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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