62 topographic sheets and 18 fire insurance
atlases across 3 places.
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This curated hub for Madison County, Ohio brings together the page's documented record links, visible map or image evidence where published, and routes to related local records.
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From the record
“In 1849, soon after the removal of the mill-dam, by order of the court, Asiatic cholera broke out in all its virulence and horrors in Amity, sweeping away many of its inhabitants in the space of a few days, striking terror to the entire populace of Amity and vicinity. Among the prominent and promising that were ruthlessly torn away was Dr.”
Epidemic At Amity - The History of Madison County, Ohio (1883). Machine-read text.
7 National Register listings · 39 businesses named in the fire insurance atlases from 1890 to 1922 · the 1883 county history tells 4 stories and names 1 people · people the book names include Benjamin Thomas (Pleasant Township, 1883) (machine-read).
Ohio within the United StatesMadison County within Ohio
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What the record shows
3 places in this county were surveyed for fire insurance: London, Mount Sterling, West Jefferson, between 1885 and 1952.
18 fire insurance atlas(es) survive for the county. Topographic coverage is national; fire insurance survey reached only incorporated places with something worth insuring.
589 topographic sheet readings cover the county's settlements.
7 properties here are on the National Register of Historic Places, including 1 historic district, 4 houses and farms.
4 of the 7 listings were added during the 1970s.
The Geographic Names Information System records 48 populated places in this county; 0 are covered by at least one topographic sheet.
4 public-domain county histories, 1883 to 1915, supply 397,389 words of narrative reproduced here in full.
What happened here
4 accounts
A captivity, a drowning, a famine, a man
scalped clearing his lot in 1789. These are passages from The History of Madison County, Ohio, written
while people who remembered the events were still alive, and each one
opens the section it comes from.
1883, Pleasant Township
Epidemic At Amity
EPIDEMIC AT AMITY. In 1849, soon after removing the mill-dam. b\ order of the court, spoken of in the history of Rosswell. Obil and (hen Beach, Asiatic cholera broke out in all its virulence ami horrors, sweeping away many of its inhabitants in the space of a few days, striking terror to the entire Inhabitants of Amity and vicinity.
In 1873-74 a series of articles were contributed to the Plain City Press by Dr. Jeremiah Converse, of Darby township, in one of which he gives the following' graphic description of the malarial epidemic that spread desolation over the eastern part of Madison county sixty years ago. He says: "In 1822-23 this country was visited with a terrible epidemic, which struck down many of the hardy pioneers and laid them low in the dust.
"The attending physicians during the epidemic in the region of the Darby country were Dr. Lorenzo Beach and Dr. James Comstock. So numerous were the patients, and protracted the epidemic, that these men became worn down from labor, exposure and anxiety ; but the great responsibility resting upon them, and the urgent appeals from suffering humanity, so stimulated their nerve power as to render them impervious to the malarious poison that was prostrating those around them.
In 1849, soon after the removal of the mill-dam, by order of the court, Asiatic cholera broke out in all its virulence and horrors in Amity, sweeping away many of its inhabitants in the space of a few days, striking terror to the entire populace of Amity and vicinity. Among the prominent and promising that were ruthlessly torn away was Dr.
Taken for the Office of War Information and
the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between
1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no
known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.
Street scene. London, Ohio Shahn, Ben, 1938. Library of CongressRed Brick Tavern, U.S. Route 40, Lafayette, Madison County, OH Unattributed, . Library of Congress
Places on the National Register
7
Every property in this county listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, with the year it was listed and the
federal nomination document.
Madison County holds 0 covered bridges on
the National Register, more than any other property type here. Each is a listed
structure with a federal nomination on file.
Digitised newspapers
5 issues
Sampled issues, machine-read from the
Library of Congress scan and published page by page, so every headline
and column is searchable text.
The Semi-Weekly Madison County Democrat
London, Ohio, 1923 to 19??. Machine-read from the Library of Congress scan.
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 (1875) - Caldwell's atlas of Madison Co., Ohio. Library of Congress.Land ownership map (1802) - Patent for 4000 acres, the 3rd quarter of Township 1 in the 16th Range in the Military District to Genl Edward Hand, dated 5th August 1802. Library of Congress.Land ownership map (1862) - Map of Madison County, Ohio. Library of Congress.
The county from the air
48 of 619 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. 619 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.
1948-09-01, scale 1:67393. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1948-09-01, scale 1:67393. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1948-09-01, scale 1:66868. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1948-09-01, scale 1:66868. 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.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.1959-10-28, scale 1:60000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1959-10-28, scale 1:60000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1959-10-28, scale 1:60000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1959-10-28, scale 1:60000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-05-03, scale 1:60000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-05-03, scale 1:60000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-05-03, scale 1:60000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-05-03, scale 1:60000. 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.1968-03-18, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1968-03-18, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1968-03-18, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1968-03-18, 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 1:99923. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1971-05-17, scale 1:118842. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1971-05-17, scale 1:115179. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1971-05-17, scale 1:115675. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1973-08-16, scale 1:42909. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1973-08-16, scale 1:42909. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1973-08-16, scale 1:42909. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1973-08-16, scale 1:42909. 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.1975-04-13, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1975-04-13, 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.
LINDEN HEIGHTS1905 to 1936, hottest 37.8 C, coldest -25.6 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.
49-2Darby township: Plain City village - That part in Madison County, comprising part of Darby township (Remainder of Plain City village is in Jerome township, Union County)
49-3Darby township - That part outside Plain City village
49-20Stokes township - That part outside South Solon village
49-21Union township: London village: London village - That part comprising Ward 1 Bounded by Village limits; Elm; 4th; Main
49-22London village - That part comprising Ward 2 Bounded by Village limits; Village limits; High, Main; 4th, Elm
49-23London village - That part comprising Ward 3 Bounded by High; Village limits; 1st; Main
49-24London village - That part comprising Ward 4 Bounded by 1st; Village limits; Center; Main
49-25London village - That part comprising Ward 5 Bounded by Center; Village limits; Main
49-26London village - That part comprising Ward 6 Bounded by Midway, Center; Main; Village limits; Village limits
49-27London village - That part comprising Ward 7 Bounded by High; Main; Center, Midway; Village limits
49-28London village - That part comprising Ward 8 Bounded by Village limits; Main; High; Village limits
49-29Union township - That part outside London village, excluding Madison County Penitentiary Farm
49-30Madison County Penitentiary Farm (In Union township)
Businesses named in the atlases
39 businesses
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. 5 of these 39 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.
The
NOAA Storm Events Database holds
275 reports for this county, causing 0 deaths,
4 injuries and about $8,726,500 in recorded property damage.
Each settlement page carries the reports that name it.
Kind of event
Reports
Thunderstorm Wind
175
Hail
63
Tornado
15
Flood
11
Flash Flood
10
Lightning
1
The most serious of them, by death, then
injury, then recorded damage. The accounts are quoted exactly as the
forecast office filed them.
Large trees were downed at several locations. In Mechanicsburg, a wind gust was measured at 60 mph. Two miles southeast of Mechanicsburg, a tree fell onto a car and injured the 16-year-old female driver.
Trees were downed. A 17-year-old was indoors and was injured when a plate glass window shattered during the strong winds. He was treated for lacerations.
The tornado first touched down in Clark County at 0452EST, 5 miles south-southeast of Springfield. It moved east-northeast and crossed into Madison County at 0506EST, 2.3 miles west-southwest of Summerford. ||The tornado downed numerous trees and caused significant damage to several structures as it moved through western Madison County. Notable damage occurred at the Madison County Airport where one of the metal hangars was completely collapsed. There was also significant damage to several other hangars and planes at the airport. Based on the damage, winds were estimated to be 130 mph at this location. The tornado continued east from here, damaging other dwellings and trees. One home in particular had its second story completely removed. The tornado then lifted in an open field, 1 mile north-northeast of Lafayette.
The tornado developed near State Route 665, east of London, and moved to the east-northeast. The tornado initially caused minor tree and structural damage, including a tipped over trailer. It then strengthened as it crossed Spring Valley Road and then across Glade Run Road, where it peaked in intensity as it crossed Wilson Road. At this location, a home lost part of its roof and tree damage was considerable, with snapped|off trunks. Damage in this area was consistent with wind speeds of around 110 mph.||The tornado continued across West Jefferson-Klousville Road and then onward to Olmstead Road. Additional damage meeting the EF1 category was found along Roberts Road, just southeast of Plain City Georgesville Road. The tornado then entered Franklin County at 0525EST, about 1.5 miles east-southeast of West Jefferson. It continued east-northeast for about 3 more miles before ending just before reaching Alton Hall Elementary School at 0528EST.
From 6 to 8 inches of rain fell across the eastern portion of the county, much of which fell in less than 6 hours. Numerous roads were flooded, especially around West Jefferson.
Thunderstorms trained across the same areas with the northern part of the county being hit the hardest. Many area creeks and streams rose out of their banks and numerous roads were closed due to flooding.
Heavy rainfall fell for the third day in a row causing most county creeks and streams to rise further out of their banks. Numerous roads were closed due to the flooding.
Two barns were destroyed and a silo and combine were severely damaged. Trees were downed, some across power line, which knocked out power to 1,200 people.
The tornado appears to have touched down at a farm on Roberts Mill Road, where several barns sustained heavy damage. These barns had complete roof removal and the collapse of exterior walls. Barn roofing and wall material was thrown west- northwest across Roberts Mill Road into the tops of trees of adjacent properties, and strewn across fields on the west side of Roberts Mill Road. The damage is consistent with wind speeds around 85 mph.||Other barn damage observed on State Route 38 south of Newport, Old Xenia Road SW south of London, and on State Route 56 southeast of London, was all determined to be nontornadic with no conclusive components of typical tornado damage.
This tornado developed in Clark County at 1816EST, about 1 mile north of South Vienna and moved east-southeast, entering Madison County about 2 miles west of Summerford.||Some tree damage occurred on Markley Road, just south of east National Road. Most trees only had limbs downed with two being uprooted. The tornado then strengthened with structural damage occurring just south of east National Road on Roberts Mill Road. A trailer attached to a tractor was tipped on its side and a barn on the property lost the west facing wall, with some of the north and south walls also removed. The east facing wall was completely removed from the structure. Around 30 percent of the roof was removed with pieces of the barn blown into a corn field toward the east. Observed damage from the barn was consistent with EF1 tornadic winds. Farther to the east, corn in a field was downed in different directions before the tornado lifted.
A tornado touched down east of Rosedale, causing extensive damage to a barn. A nearby home sustained minor structural damage. Numerous trees were uprooted and downed.
Two barns were knocked down and wires were reported down near Highway 40. Trees were also reported down in the area. These occurrences were due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
A trailer home was shifted 8 feet off of its foundation, briefly trapping an occupant inside. Several other trailer homes sustained roof and siding damage. In addition, two telephone poles were snapped at the ground and a few small trees were also downed.
Several large trees were uprooted and large limbs and power lines were downed in a neighborhood on the west side of Choctaw Lake. A flag pole was blown over at one home, and patio furniture was tossed around at another residence.
The tornado is believed to have first touched down in a field south of London-Lockbourne Road. Video showed the tornado crossing London-Lockbourne Road and then moving northeast into the Lilly Chapel area. The tornado produced damage along Lilly Chapel-Georgesville Road. One barn was destroyed and metal from the roof was thrown across the road into neighboring yards. Tree damage was also observed along Lilly Chapel-Georgesville Road. The tornado then quickly lifted in a field as no damage was observed along Gerich Lilly Road. Based on the damage, the maximum winds were estimated to be 85 MPH.
The Survey's mineral resources record
lists 10 workings inside this county. 0 still
produce and 10 are closed or unrecorded. Each settlement
page carries the workings within five miles of it.
Commodity
Workings
Sand and Gravel, Construction
6
Limestone, General
2
Dolomite, Stone, Crushed/Broken
1
Stone, Crushed/Broken
1
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: 882 of them, by
kingdom 770 animalia, 64 fungi, 46 plantae, 2 unrecorded. Each is a physical object in a named collection, not a
sighting. Held by Ohio State University - Fish Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM), YPM, UA, Ohio State University - Bird Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM), Ohio State University - Mammal Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM), NY 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.
The History of Madison County, Ohio devotes a chapter to each township:
its boundaries and streams, who settled it and when, the mills, the
schools and the churches. All 13 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 The History of Madison County, Ohio 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 1883.
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 3
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.
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