Daily AncestorTownship or other division of county
Township or other division of county is the census heading naming the local unit inside a county, such as a township, town, precinct, beat, ward or hundred.
The Census Bureau calls these units minor civil divisions. The 1900 instructions explain that the names differ by state: townships in the north central states and several others, towns in New England, New York and Wisconsin, districts or precincts in the South and West, beats in Mississippi, wards in Louisiana, hundreds in Delaware.
From 1900 enumerators were told to write the class as well as the name, as Princeton township, not just Princeton. Knowing the division narrows your search to a few pages.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Township or other division of county." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/census-terms/minor-civil-division. Last checked 2026-10-03.