Ohio holds a special place in my heart, not only because I live here now but because I was raised here. In college I found myself drawn to the history of the state and in particularly the ghost towns. These small towns sometimes just disappeared while others were swallowed up by bigger cities. You’ll find a number of the ghost towns in Ohio listed here.
Carpenter’s Mill first appeared in 1801 when it was known as the Liberty Settlement. The town itself was built around a mill in town, with all of its residents working at the mill or related to someone who worked there. The residents picked the name Carpenter’s Mill when they were granted a post office in 1832. Carpenter’s Mill was located in Delaware County and the only thing left today is the Bieber’s Mill.
Cheshire is a town I mentioned previously, but it’s worth mentioning here because it’s one of the only modern day ghost towns in Ohio. American Electric Power owns a power plant near the town and was warned to clean things up after residents complained. The complaints eventually led to lawsuits and rather than settle each one, the company decided to just buy out the entire town. All of this happened in 2001-2002 and today there are very little people in the area though most of the buildings are still standing.
One of the most famous ghost towns in all of Ohio is Moonville. The town was comprised mainly of miners, but there was also a railroad running through town. There is little left of this small town now except for a cemetery and the Moonville Tunnel that many people believe is haunted. I’m lucky enough to have family from the area and if their stories are right, this might actually be a haunted place. Moonville survived for a number of years until a man was killed on the railroad tracks near the tunnel. After that, the town never recovered.
There’s also the town of Mt. Nebo. The story of Mt. Nebo begins with Jonathon Koons, a man who began believing in Spiritualism after attending a séance. He later began experiencing strange ghostly phenomena in his own home. Word of the events spread and Mt. Nebo became quite a popular place. Eventually Koons and his family left and Mt. Nebo eventually died. Today nothing exists of the ghost town.
Another ghost town located in Ohio is Flint. The town was little more than a stop on the railroad at first, but it quickly grew to include a number of houses, a store and a post office. Flint has little more than a few buildings and a cemetery today. Then there’s Frampton in Licking County. The town has only a few buildings and enough residents to earn a post office, though this closed in 1901. Today the only sign of the town at all is a plaque and a road named after the old town.
You can also visit the remains of Revenge, a town that once existed in Fairfield County, Ohio. This ghost town was little more than a small farming community with a general store to tie everyone together. The old general store building still exists, but there isn’t much else there.
The oddly named town of Ai exists in Fulton County and it isn’t a ghost town in the literal sense of the word. The town still has over 100 residents and a school, but there’s not else there. Ai was the name of a town mentioned in the Bible where sin ran rampant. This little ghost town took its name from that one because of the large number of bars operating in the town. After the railroad tracks moved, the businesses shut down.
Baldwin is the name of a ghost town that once sat on the Indiana/Ohio border in Paulding County. The town was built around the lumbering industry, but eventually they harvested all the tress in the area and the town died off. Today there are only a few buildings left in this ghost town. Hancock County once held the small yet bustling town of Beagle. At the height of the town it had a post office, depot and general store. The town was built around the railroad depot, but died when the railroad shut down. Today there’s nothing left except the remains of the railroad tracks.
Lawrence County is home to the ghost town of Blackfork, which once had thousands of citizens. The town itself was built around a company that manufacture red bricks and most residents worked for the company. There was a large store in Blackfork also owned by the company and workers were paid for in “company money” that was only accepted at company owned properties. Today there are only a few remains of the old buildings left.
Ohio also has a few ghost towns that have people living there like Blueball in Butler County. Blueball was once a small town in the area that got its name from a blue metal ball hanging at the intersection of two major roads. It was founded in 1820, but became part of the larger town of Middletown in the 1990s. There are still people living in Blueball, but technically the town is part of Middletown now.
Butler County also has the ghost town of Busenbark. In 1867 Busenbark reached national fame when a local man by the name of William Richter hosted the world heavyweight boxing competition on his farm. Thousands of people descended on the town to watch the event, which ended when the loser experienced significant injuries that led to his death. This farm is the only thing left of Busenbark.
Cuyahoga County is the location of the ghost town once known as Bluestone. Bluestone was founded in the 1850s as a quarry town and had a number of residents. The town today has nothing left except a few foundations and the sidewalks from the old town. Brilliant in Jefferson County is another Ohio ghost town where people still live. The Brilliant Glass Works operated in the area for a number of years and most of the residents worked for the company. The town dissolved in 1993 when the town government was closed down.
Crawford County has a similar ghost town known as Broken Shield, a town named after Colonel William Crawford. The man was captured by a band of Indians and broke his sword to prevent them from using it to kill him. Ironically the same band of Indians then burned him to death. The town was named Portersville and Wingert Corners before adopting the name Broken Shield following the Civil War. There are only a few people living in the town today.
Clement County, Ohio had the small town of Chilo. Chilo was one of many towns in Ohio founded along the riverbanks and this would eventually be its downfall. The town suffered through a terrible flood in the 1880s and a second one in 1913 that was so bad, a number of people moved. In 1937 the worst flood in the history of the area swept through town, covering Chilo with water and leaving most of the residents homeless. Today nothing exists except some battered foundations.
Morrow County is where you can find Climax, a small ghost town with a few residents. The town appeared around a centralized railroad depot and once had over 100 people living there as well as a church, post office and stores. As is the case with many Ohio ghost towns, when the railroad shut down the depot, the town slowly died. Cygnet is a small town in Wood County, Ohio. When a settler discovered oil reserves there in 1886, people quickly descended and a small town was full. The oil wells dried up and people started leaving, but there are still a few residents calling Cygnet home.
Van Wert once had the town of Dull, also known as Dulltown. A farmer in the area by the name of Dull, settled the town and it was named after him. There were once residents, farms, stores, a depot and even a post office, but not a lot remains today. However there are still a few people related to the Dull family living there. The same Ohio county is home to the ghost town of Glenmore, though very little remains of the town. Glenmore was built around a railroad depot, which later gave way to the farming industry. Several businesses were destroyed by a fire in 1915 and a second fire eleven years later destroyed the rest of the businesses in town.
You can also find Schumm in Van Wert County, Ohio. The town was named after a German settler who bought land in the area during the 1800s. There are still people living in Shumm and it also has a church, but the businesses are all gone. Hamilton was another town located in Butler County, Ohio but today there’s nothing left to mark the site except for a monument erected by the state. Named after Alexander Hamilton, the town was most famous for its grand hotel, which still exists albeit as an apartment building now.
Perry County’s Hatfield’s Crossing was once a bustling community that now has only one house and a few foundations left. The town lasted for nearly 100 years until a flood in 1903 leveled many buildings. Several other floods in the following years led to nearly every citizen leaving.
Perry County is also home to New Straitsville. Like other towns in the area it was founded by a mining company and actually grew fairly large. In 1884 a labor dispute broke out and miners literally set the mines on fire. The fire was never stopped and actually still continues today. New Straitsville still has a number of residents, but the town never really recovered after the mines closed.
San Toy is another famous Ohio ghost town in Perry County. The town was founded in the 1880s as a mining community and continued to prosper until 1927 when the mines went dry. Today San Toy only has a church, the jail and one house left. Supposedly San Toy was one of the roughest towns in Ohio and stories from its history sound similar to Old West towns. Murders were high and violence was even higher. The company that owned the town lost one mine to a fire set by unhappy workers and later closed the second, which led to the town dying.
Huntersville is one of the only ghost towns in Hardin County. The town formed around a trading post and was once quite large in size. There were several businesses operating in the area, but today there are only a few people left and a memorial park. Belmont County is where you can find the remains of Jacobsburg. This town lasted until the 1980s when it suffered a twofold disaster, both the railroad and the mines were closed. Most of the residents left town to find work, but there are still enough people living there to keep its post office.
Knockemstiff in Ross County, Ohio possibly deserves an article of its own. This small town also went by the names of Shady Glenn and Glenn Shady. One story about the town’s name says that it came from moonshiners who practiced in the area. Another story claims that a preacher told a parishioner to knockemstiff when she complained about her husband’s cheating. There are still people living in Knockemstiff today, but the town has only a few people.
In Logan County you can find the town of Marl City, though the only things left are a few run down buildings. Marl City was the location of a large cement company and concrete made there was used to create the first paved road in the country. The street itself is still located in nearby Bellefontaine.
Ashland County is home to Melco. This is more of a traditional ghost town since only a few houses still exist. Melco was founded in the 1920s and some of the homes were historically significant because they were built by the WPA. The town was basically a stop on the railroad and was abandoned in the 1950s. There are some who claim Melco was never actually a town, but rather a spot where the tracks switched.
New Boston was located in Clark County, not to be confused with the town by the same name in southeastern Ohio. New Boston first appeared in 1809, but slowly died off after losing its bid to be the county seat to Springfield. There is nothing left of the old town and when I attempted to locate it myself, I couldn’t even find foundation stones.Sprucevale in Columbiana County, Ohio is another place I’ve wrote about before, due to the ghost stories. The town was part of the canal system operating in Ohio, but was abandoned in the early 20th century. Today the ghost town is located in Beaver Creek State Park.
Montgomery County is best known for Dayton, but it also has the ghost town of Tadmoor Village, where I’ve actually been. The little town was once located near Tailorsville Dam and there’s still a sign directing people there. History says the town dates back to the 1850s, but there isn’t much there today. Clermont County is the site of Utopia. A religious sect moved to the area, believing that the end of the world was coming. The land was later sold to a Spiritualist organization who built a large house to serve as their communal meeting house. A flood destroyed the building and killed those inside. Today the foundation of that building still exist, but there’s little else there.
Wonderland was a small town in Franklin County, Ohio. The town was a resort destination, but died off when an airport was built nearby. There’s only one building left in Wonderland and even the roads are being taken over by weeds. Ohltown was an oddly named town in Mahoning County, Ohio. In the 1830s the town formed around large coal deposits, but the town itself was flooded in the 1920s and became the Meander Creek Reservoir.
You can also find Rendville in Perry County. The town was named after the first settler to arrive and he later formed a coal company there. Rendville had a large population, stores, churches, bars and even a hotel. It started dying off when the mines closed and now there’s only a few buildings and people left.
Sources:
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gtusa/usa/oh.htm
http://www.forgottenoh.com/ghosttowns.html
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/oh/oh.html
