NORWOOD HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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Historical Dates for Norwood, Ohio.
1800s-1850s

  • 1800 (January)
    After just a little over three years of moving the Columbia Presbyterian Church to Duck Creek (possibly at the edge of present day Norwood), it was moved to near "McFarlan's Blockhouse" (an area which was to later be called Pleasant Ridge). The church had a cemetery in that area since 1795, probably when the McFarlan settlement was started. The church building (a small log structure) was dismantled and physically moved log-by-log to the new location. In 1818, the church changed its name from Duck Creek to the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church.

    This old log church, historic for both Pleasant Ridge and Norwood, was replaced in 1825 with a one-room brick church.

    Unfortunately, few records remain of the Duck Creek Church. The records from that early time were lost in 1814 when the home of Daniel Reeder, the church clerk since 1793, was destroyed in a fire. The church records were burned in that blaze, according to "150 Years of Presbyterianisn in the Ohio Valley, 1790-1940," published in 1941).

  • 1801
    Peter Smith was chosen pastor of the Columbia Baptist Church. By revival, he brought 150 members to the church within a few months. At a meeting on December 5, 1801, it was voted to build a new meeting-house on the lot of Mrs. Ginnings (Sarah Jennings, widow ?) on the Duck Creek (at today's Edmondson Road).

    Maybe the move was done because Smith lived in that area. It has been written that a record dated February 17, 1797, details his purchase of 160 acres for $106, possibly near the Duck Creek site. Also, he may have bought land on April 1803, a portion or all of which he sold to his son Samuel on October 29, 1804 (possibly when the elder Smith moved north). The Duck Creek church was completed in 1803, a year before Smith left. However, it wasn't permanently occupied until 1808. It became known as the Duckcreek Baptist Church.

    Interestingly, one of Peter's daughters, Sally, was said to have married a Henry Jennings in 1799. Could this man be related to the Sarah Jennings from whom the church's Duck Creek land was purchased?

  • 1803
    The Columbia Baptist Church completes the new log cabin meeting-house on the lot of Mrs. Ginnings, overlooking the Duck Creek.

  • 1807
    On what was to become Norwood Heights (1869), on the site of the future home of John W. Siebern (this name was indicated on maps of 1869 & 1884; John N. Siebern may have been his son), and now across from Quatman Avenue on the east side of Montgomery Road, was the cabin of the Daniel Wolverton family. In a story told by John G. Olden, in his "Historical Sketches and Early Reminiscences," and repeated by Henry and Kate Ford in their 1881 book, "History of Hamilton County, Ohio," two of the Wolverton children, Jemima, about six, and John, nearly four, are lost in the woods for two days. Many neighbors looked for them. Finally, with the help of a bloodhound, the children were found on the hills east of Reading, near the later site of Mount Notre Dame.

  • 1808
    The Columbia Baptist Church at Duck Creek was permanently occupied after being built five years earlier. So many members left the original Columbia Church (near what is now Lunken Airport) that it eventually was abandoned and finally demolished in 1837. The current Columbia Baptist Church was built later on Eastern Avenue.

  • 1809 (summer)
    Sam Bowman, after occupying his land tax free for several years, has the land deeded to him. At the crossing of State and County Roads (later named Montgomery Road and Smith Road/Carthage Avenue), he built a tavern and coach stop).

    At the opposite side of the intersection, John Sharp had a cabin and small store. The area soon became known as Sharpsburg, after Mr. Sharp. (It isn't known why it wasn't called Bowmansville !)

  • 1821 (January 21)
    Joseph G. Langdon, Sharpsburg's only postmaster from 1867 to 1870, is born in "The One-Mile House" on Gilbert Avenue. In 1870, the post office was renamed the Norwood Post Office, as was the train station.

  • 1828
    David Mills (Abner's son) and his wife, Elizabeth, lease land between what is now called Smith and Montgomery Roads to the Sharpsburg School District for the Central School. At this time it was a sub-district under control of the Columbia Township trustees.

  • 1835
    The Duckcreek Baptist Church's old log-cabin meeting-house is replaced by a low brick structure. It remained until 1890, when the church held its last annual meeting on June 21, 1890 to celebrate the Columbia Baptist Church's 100th anniversary.

  • 1838 (September)
    John C. Weyer is born in Ohio. He later moves to Cincinnati. He becomes the first mayor of the Village of Norwood in 1888, serving from 1888 to 1891.

  • 1840
    Joseph G. Langdon takes up residence in Sharpsburg area after marrying Joanne Lyon, daughter of farmers on the south side of what would become Norwood.

  • 1845 (March 8) The Belpre and Cincinnati Railroad Company was chartered to build a railroad from a point opposite Parkersburg, Virginia, to some point on the Little Miami Railroad. Because of various changes, the name was changed to Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad in 1851. Eventually, this railroad would extend itself into Sharpsburg as the first tracks through the future Norwood.

  • 1849
    John Uri Lloyd was born in 1849 in West Bloomfield, New York. After moving to East Norwood, he became one of its leaders.

  • 1852 (October 1)
    The first(?) payment of the Cincinnati-Sharpsburg Road Bonds is distributed. This may have been the Montgomery Road from Cincinnati to, or through, Sharpsburg.

  • 1856
    The Duck Creek Baptist Church, Duck Creek and Edmondson Roads, established a mission at Pleasant Ridge. By 1859, they had built a meeting house there. By 1866, the mission became a new church, the Pleasant Ridge Regular Baptist Church. In 1887, the church moved to Norwood, meeting at the Norwood Town Hall. By 1892, the name was changed to Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church of Norwood, Ohio. In the summer of 1901, the name was changed again — this time to the Norwood Baptist Church. While in Norwood, the church was first located at Sherman and Station Avenues and then at Courtland Avenue, its current location.

  • 1857
    The Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, from Harmar, Ohio, to Loveland, Clermont County, a distance of 173 miles, was completed. At Loveland it connected with the Little Miami Railroad and used those tracks to enter Cincinnati. A decade later the M. & C. would have its own tracks to Cincinnati, going through Norwood, the first railroad to do so.

  • 1859
    Ren Mulford, Jr. was born, probably in Cincinnati. He co-authored with Werter G. Betty, the 1894 book, "Norwood, Her Homes and Her People." Mulford was a sportswriter and editor, starting in 1879. In 1887, Mulford moved to his new home on Beech Street in East Norwood, and began writing a daily column, "THE NORWOODS," about the new suburbs he called home. He later worked in the advertising field. He lived in Norwood for years, but eventually moved to Kennedy Heights.

  • 1859 The local Montgomery Pike tollhouse in front of the Drake homestead (now the location of the Frisch's restaurant) was destroyed by fire. Because of an injunction, it was not rebuilt on its original site, but was placed at the junction of Smith Road and the Pike, where it stood until 1864 (possibly when the railroad came through and the Montgomery Pike bridge was built).
    

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