63 topographic sheets and 7 fire insurance
atlases across 1 place.
Research this county
This curated hub for Delaware County, Ohio brings together the page's documented record links, visible map or image evidence where published, and routes to related local records.
Use the page's provenance and linked records to distinguish the source material from the site's navigation and summaries.
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From the record
49 National Register listings · 25 businesses named in the fire insurance atlases from 1890 to 1911 · the 1908 county history tells 0 stories and names 1 people · people the book names include Ev. William G. Williams (Delaware City Township, 1895) (machine-read).
Ohio within the United StatesDelaware County within Ohio
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What the record shows
1 place in this county was surveyed for fire insurance: Delaware, between 1885 and 1950.
7 fire insurance atlas(es) survive for the county. Topographic coverage is national; fire insurance survey reached only incorporated places with something worth insuring.
2,023 topographic sheet readings cover the county's settlements.
49 properties here are on the National Register of Historic Places, including 1 covered bridge, 20 houses and farms.
9 of the 49 listings were added during the 1970s.
The Geographic Names Information System records 148 populated places in this county; 0 are covered by at least one topographic sheet.
3 public-domain county histories, 1880 to 1908, supply 151,763 words of narrative reproduced here in full.
Places on the National Register
49
Every property in this county listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, with the year it was listed and the
federal nomination document.
Delaware County holds 1 covered bridges on
the National Register, more than any other property type here. Each is a listed
structure with a federal nomination on file.
Drawn when these were printed as
single large sheets: the town seen from the air, and the county
divided into its farms with every owner named. Each opens the
original at the Library of Congress.
Land ownership map (1849) - Map of Delaware County : also a part of Marion and Morrow counties. Library of Congress.Land ownership map (1875) - Map of Scioto County, Ohio. Library of Congress.Land ownership map (1868) - Map of the City of Portsmouth and Wayne Township, Scioto County, Ohio. Library of Congress.Land ownership map (1889) - Bryan's new map of the City of Portsmouth and part of Clay Township Scioto Co., Ohio. Library of Congress.
Photographs from libraries nationwide
7 of 13 shown
Selected from the Digital Public Library
of America's 13 image records catalogued for this county. Every
one shown here carries a public-domain status or a licence that permits
reuse on a site that carries advertising; non-commercial, share-alike
and restricted images are excluded. The selection is spread across the
county's towns (at most eight per town), so no single institution's
bulk upload crowds out the rest. Each opens the holding library's
record, and
the complete set at the
Digital Public Library of America is one click away.
Sandusky St. looking north, Delaware, Ohio. Boston Public Library, via the Digital Public Library of America.Willis High School, Delaware, Ohio. Boston Public Library, via the Digital Public Library of America.Gray Chapel, O. W. U., Delaware, Ohio. Boston Public Library, via the Digital Public Library of America.Selby Stadium, O. W. U., Delaware, Ohio. Boston Public Library, via the Digital Public Library of America.Sulphur Spring, O. W. U. Campus, Delaware, Ohio. Boston Public Library, via the Digital Public Library of America.Delaware County Court House, Delaware, Ohio. Boston Public Library, via the Digital Public Library of America.City building, Delaware, Ohio. Boston Public Library, via the Digital Public Library of America.
The county from the air
44 of 792 shown
Flown by the U.S. Geological Survey
between 1937 and 1989, the Aerial Photo Single Frames collection is
the definitive mid-century view of the land: fields, roads and rivers
as the camera saw them. 792 frames touch this county; the
selection below spreads across the decades of flights (at most four
per year), so one flight cannot crowd out the rest. The full set is
free to browse and download at
EarthExplorer under the dataset Aerial Photo Single
Frames.
1953-03-01, scale 1:18000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1953-03-01, scale 1:18000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1953-03-01, scale 1:18000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1953-03-01, scale 1:18000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1954-04-09, scale 1:18000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1954-04-09, scale 1:18000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1954-04-09, scale 1:18000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1954-04-09, scale 1:18000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1959-10-21, scale 1:60000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1959-10-21, scale 1:60000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1959-10-21, scale 1:60000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1959-10-21, scale 1:60000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-04-12, scale 1:17000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-04-12, scale 1:17000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-04-12, scale 1:17000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-04-12, scale 1:17000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1963-05-06, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1963-05-06, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1963-05-06, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1963-05-06, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1965-04-29, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1965-04-29, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1965-04-29, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1965-04-29, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1966-08-19, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1966-08-19, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1966-08-19, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1966-08-19, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1970-07-16, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1970-07-16, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1970-07-16, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1970-07-16, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1971-04-16, scale 1:101482. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1971-04-16, scale 1:101482. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1971-04-16, scale 1:101482. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1971-04-16, scale 1:99923. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1973-10-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1973-10-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1973-10-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1973-10-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1974-05-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1974-05-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1974-05-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1974-05-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.
City directories
2 volumes
The "who lived here, by year" answer:
pre-1929 public-domain directory volumes naming the county's people,
machine-read and searchable as text.
The thermometers that kept this
county's weather, and the gages that watched its rivers, as the
federal records hold them. The extremes below are measured values
from those records, not estimates.
DELAWARE1896 to 2001, hottest 88.9 C, coldest -31.7 C
DELAWARE LAKE1949 to 2026, hottest 32.2 C, coldest -23.9 C
Who lived here in 1950, one enumeration
district at a time, as the Census Bureau described each district.
Each row opens its official National Archives result, with Population
Schedules and ED Maps available there.
21-11Delaware township: Delaware city: Delaware city - That part of Ward 1 Bounded by City limits; N. Sandusky; Lincoln Ave.; N. Liberty
21-12Delaware city - That part of Ward 1 Bounded by City limits; N. Liberty; Lincoln Ave.; Hocking Valley Railroad, City limits
21-13Delaware city - That part of Ward 1 Bounded by City limits, Hocking Valley Railroad, Lincoln Ave.; Campbell, Radnor Rd., King Ave.; W. William; City limits
21-14Delaware city - That part of Ward 1 Bounded by Lincoln Ave.; Washington; W. Central Ave., Radnor Rd.; Campbell
21-15Delaware city - That part of Ward 1 Bounded by Lincoln Ave.; N. Sandusky; W. William; N. Washington
21-16Delaware city - That part of Ward 1 Bounded by Radnor Rd., W. Central Ave.; N. Washington; W. William; King Ave.
21-17Delaware city - That part of Ward 2 Bounded by W. William; S. Sandusky; Park Ave.; S. Liberty
21-18Delaware city - That part of Ward 2 Bounded by W. William; S. Liberty; Park Ave.; Toledo
21-19Delaware city - That part of Ward 2 Bounded by W. William, Toledo, Park Ave.; S. Liberty; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway; City limits
21-20Delaware city - That part of Ward 2 Bounded by Park Ave.; S. Sandusky; London Rd.; S. Liberty
21-21Delaware city - That part of Ward 2 Bounded by Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, S. Liberty, London Rd.; S. Sandusky; City limits; City limits
21-22Delaware city - That part of Ward 3 Bounded by E. William; City limits; City limits; Olentangy River
21-23Delaware city - That part of Ward 3 Bounded by E. William; Olentangy River, City limits; City limits; S. Sandusky
21-24Delaware city - That part of Ward 4 Bounded by City limits; City limits, Olentangy River; W. William; N. Sandusky
21-25Delaware city - That part of Ward 4 Bounded by City limits; Willow, Wilder, Channing, New York Central Railroad; E. William; Olentangy River
21-26Delaware city - That part of Ward 4 Bounded by City limits; City limits; City limits, E. William; New York Central Railroad, Channing, Wilder, Willow
21-27Delaware township - That part outside Delaware city
21-28Genoa township: Genoa township - That part east of State Hwy. 3
21-29Genoa township - That part west of State Hwy. 3
Every Sanborn volume opens with a printed index
naming the town's mills, tanneries, hotels and works by proprietor. Those
indexes were read off the scanned sheets by machine and then matched to each
other, so a business surveyed four times appears here once, with the years it
survived. 7 of these 25 were named in more than one atlas. Each carries a
crop of the line it was read from: the spelling is the recogniser's and the
1880s lithographer's, and the scan behind it is the proof.
Every wildfire the federal occurrence
database records inside this county: 1 of them, burning about
1 acres. 0 started naturally and 0 were
recorded as arson. Each settlement page carries the fires within five
miles of it.
Reported cause
Fires
Equipment and vehicle use
1
The five largest, by the area the report
gives. None of them was recorded as arson.
Date
Cause
Size
Reported by
Name on the report
1 January 2009
Equipment and vehicle use
1.0 acres
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
not named
Every settlement page carries the fires within five
miles of it - see the settlement index below.
Storms, 1958 to
2026
60 of 428 shown
The
NOAA Storm Events Database holds
428 reports for this county, causing 4 deaths,
43 injuries and about $72,890,909 in recorded property damage.
Each settlement page carries the reports that name it.
Kind of event
Reports
Thunderstorm Wind
262
Hail
92
Flood
35
Flash Flood
18
Tornado
14
Heavy Rain
5
Lightning
2
The most serious of them, by death, then
injury, then recorded damage. The accounts are quoted exactly as the
forecast office filed them.
A tornado touched down in the southeastern part of the county, along Harlem road and then raced rapidly eastward to the Licking county line. Two high tension power line towers were bent over and 14 houses were either damaged or destroyed.
Trees were reported down around the area due to damaging thunderstorm winds. A portion of the roof was peeled off of the Olentangy High School gym. One woman was injured when a tree fell onto her home causing severe damage to the roof. The woman was taken to a nearby hospital for possible concussion.
Trees and limbs were downed, at least one falling on a house. Outbuildings were damaged. A 36 year-old man had to be hospitalized after lightning hit the barn he was in as he sat in a metal chair.
Hail up to the size of golf balls affected the north side of the Columbus metro area and southern Delaware county. Hail was extensive from Dublin, through Worthington and Powell, to Westerville. Trees and shrubs were stripped of their foliage and cars and homes sustained significant hail damage. The hail covered the ground in some locations up to six inches deep in Worthington in northern Franklin county and near the Polaris Mall in southern Delaware county.
The tornado developed in central Delaware County near U.S. Route 23. As the tornado crossed U.S. Route 23, it strengthened and widened and caused more widespread structural damage as it crossed the Olentangy River. Even more significant damage occurred as it moved along Berlin Station Road and in other areas of Berlin Township. Along this portion of the track, a number of homes sustained siding and roof damage and numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. Several barns were also destroyed. In the vicinity of Olentangy Berlin High School, parts of the school campus and athletic fields were damaged, signs were bent over, and several free-standing transmission towers were felled. In this area, maximum wind speeds were estimated to be around 110 mph.||The tornado crossed Alum Creek Reservoir and moved into neighborhoods southwest of Sunbury and west of Galena, where it caused widespread and significant tree damage and a large number of homes had windows blown out, roofs partially removed, and power poles snapped. Damage in these areas was consistent with wind speeds from 95 to 105 mph. ||As the tornado moved through the Galena area, there was a complex mix of straight-line wind damage through southern parts of the town of Galena with tornadic damage embedded across the north side of Galena. The damage field through this area was notably wide.||The tornado entered Licking County at 2022EST, about 3 miles SSE of Condit, and continued to moved east-southeast across much of northern Licking County before ending at 2050 EST, about 1 mile south-southeast of St. Louisville.
Trees were downed. Twenty sailboats capsized in O'Shaughnessy Reservoir (Shawnee Hills area) during the storm. Many boaters had to be rescued from the water well off shore.
As much as five inches of rain caused severe flooding in and around Delaware. 154 homes were damaged, many in subdivisions along State Route 257 northwest of Powell. 34 mobile homes in the Shroyers Mobile Home Park just north of Delaware sustained damage when the Olentangy River rose out of its banks, and forced a few evacuations. Numerous roads and bridges were damaged by high water and culvert washouts.
The tornado briefly touched down on the west side of Highway 257 southwest of Radnor. The tornado initially hit two barns, destroying one and heavily damaging another. One barn consisted of cinder block walls and tin roofing. Much of the cinder block collapsed, while roofing of this structure with some of the attached cinder block and other bard roofing and walls was lifted across Highway 257 where much of the material was wrapped around trees along the Scioto River. Large portions of the barn roofing was lofted over the tree line along the Scioto River and deposited in the back yards of residences along River Road, on the east side of the river, a distance of two tenths of a mile away. Tree damage along the south side of the brief tornado track was lying in a northeast orientation which was inward toward the tornado track which confirms the convergent circulation. Other damage along the path included snapped large trees, complete destruction of a small shed, and large amounts of debris wrapped around trees. Corn stalks were found in yards of residence on the east side of the Scioto River, with the nearest corn fields nearly a quarter of a mile away. Based on the damage surveyed, the maximum wind speed of this tornado was approximately 85 miles per hour.
The tornado touched down on the edge of a field along North Old State Road. A large tree and barn sustained significant damage near the beginning of the path of the tornado. The tornado then moved northeast, crossing North Old State Road. A narrow path of additional tree damage was observed in the front yard of a residence. This home sustained minor damage including a garage door blown in, loss of shingles and a couple of broken windows. A nearby utility pole and transformer were snapped with electric lines also downed. Further along the path of the tornado, a large spruce tree was uprooted, an unanchored storage shed was moved off its foundation, and several other trees were damaged. Based on the damage surveyed, the maximum estimated wind speed of this tornado was 85 miles per hour.
From 4-7 inches of rain fell from late on May 31st until the night of June 1st, with flooding occurring as thunderstorms trained across the county during the evening. Numerous roads were flooded especially in the southern half of the county.
The tornado initially developed in Union County, at 1924EST, about 1.3 mile west of Lunda. The tornado moved east-southeast and entered Delaware County at 1948EST, about 2 miles northwest of Ostrander. As the tornado moved east across far western, it produced mainly tree damage before ending near U.S. Route 36.
A strip mall under construction in southern Delaware County along Ohio Route 750 sustained extensive damage due to thunderstorm winds. Winds to 58 mph were measured in Delaware, and numerous power lines and trees were downed at several locations. Some trees fell onto vehicles and across roads.
The tornado quickly developed and likely reached the maximum intensity near the intersection of Fancher Road and State Route 605 South causing damage to a residence on the south side of Fancher Road. Multiple homes on the south side of Fancher Road had damage including blown out windows, garage door failures, and moderate roof material loss.||The tornado weakened as it crossed Fancher Road near Hatch Road and Kean Road, causing damage to trees in the area. The last known damage was found north of Fancher Road where an outbuilding lost most of its metal panels.
The tornado is believed to have begun in a field just west of Jumper Road, with the first evidence of tornadic damage occurring along Jumper Road. Multiple trees and large limbs were knocked down and partial uplift of a roof was observed on one of the homes. Shingles and other material were thrown both downwind and upwind from the home. To the southeast of Jumper Road, additional tree damage was noted along North Old State Road. The tornado likely crossed Alum Creek, producing additional tree damage along N 3 Bs and K Road before lifting. This tornado was rated EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with maximum winds of 80 mph.
A weak tornado initially touched down just south of the Buckeye|Valley Middle School. The damage near the school was limited to|one tree with a limb down. The track continued north-northeast|into a residential area. In this residential area several 2 to 4|inch limbs were snapped and a few shallow-rooted trees were|uprooted. Roof damage was observed due to a fallen tree on Coover|Road and a barn had part of the roof cave in on its east side.||The tornado lifted until it crossed US-23 just west of Delaware|Dam. A small cluster of trees were twisted on the west side of the|highway.||The next location is Delaware State Park where the tornado was on|the ground for a few minutes. At Delaware State Park, a few|partially rotten large limbs were downed and numerous 2 to 3 inch|limbs were also downed. Also, several shallow rooted trees were|uprooted. A medium-sized dumpster near the marina was tipped and|moved about 20 feet. Three boats at the marina sustained minor|awning damage. A few 2 to 3 inch tree limbs around the marina were|snapped. Across the river from the marina, a snapped limb marked|the end of the tornado track.
A two to three foot diameter tree was reported down. Several tree limbs fell on cars. Railroad crossing arm guard equipment was damaged. These occurrences were due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
Several trees and power poles were downed along Horseshoe Road. A tin garage roof was removed from a residence near the intersection of Horseshoe Road and Bishop Road.
Measured winds of 60 miles an hour knocked down several large trees, some feel on power lines and across roads. Ten thousand three hundred people temporarily lost power.
Trees were reported down across the southern half of the county.
Mines and
quarries
10 recorded
The Survey's mineral resources record
lists 10 workings inside this county. 5 still
produce and 5 are closed or unrecorded. Each settlement
page carries the workings within five miles of it.
Commodity
Workings
Limestone, General
4
Stone, Crushed/Broken
4
Clay
2
The least common of them first, because a
county's hundredth gravel pit says nothing its first ten did not.
Museum specimens collected inside this
county and catalogued with a date and a place: 3,512 of them, by
kingdom 3,206 animalia, 170 fungi, 120 plantae, 6 protozoa, 5 chromista. Each is a physical object in a named collection, not a
sighting. Held by Ohio State University - Bird Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM), Ohio State University - Fish Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM), FMNH, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, OH (CLEV), Ohio State University - Amphibian Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM), Ohio State University - Mammal Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM) among others, and each settlement page carries
the specimens collected near it.
The oldest of them. A specimen proves
something was collected on that day; its absence proves nothing.
20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio and Representative Citizens devotes a chapter to each township:
its boundaries and streams, who settled it and when, the mills, the
schools and the churches. All 2 are reproduced here in full. Each row
shows the township's own shape and where it lies in the county, drawn from
the Census Bureau's boundary. Which settlements belong to which township
is computed from that same boundary, not taken from the book.
Everyone 20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio and Representative Citizens stops to write about, with
the section that describes them. Among them are the men who founded the
place and governed the Territory. Each name opens the passage itself, in
the words of 1908.
Named settlements recorded in the Geographic Names
Information System, each with the topographic sheets covering it. Villages,
hamlets and abandoned places alike. Each is shown with the watercourse or
landform it stands on and the survey quadrangle it falls on. The 1
places that were also surveyed for fire insurance come first, with the
number of atlases and photographs held for them.
The complete index, with nothing left out.
Each of these is a separate record with its own page: a federal survey
report, or the case file that argued a property on to the National
Register. Both are public domain and reproduced word for word.
Topographic sheets. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, county index, measured from the bulk metadata.
Fire insurance maps. Library of Congress Sanborn collection, faceted to this county.
Photographs. Each place queried individually against the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs search.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.