BlockBallville, Ohio
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Ballville Township. It lies in ZIP code area 43420. It stands on Minnow Creek. The Survey maps it on the Fremont West quadrangle. 3,823 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 620 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1901 to 1986The same ground, surveyed 85 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
On record in Ballville
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register within a mile 2 records
The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.
Rutherford B. Hayes HouseNational Historic Landmark · listed 1966 · 0.9 miles away
Soldiers Memorial Parkway and McKinley Memorial Parkwaylisted 1991 · 0.9 miles away
Population over time
3 figuresBallville grew from 3,255 to 3,823 between 2000 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 3,255 | |
| 2010 | 2,976 | -279 (-9%) |
| 2020 | 3,823 | +847 (+28%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 13 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1901 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:62500
- 1903 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Toledo quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Fremont West quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS Toledo quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Fremont West quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Findlay quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
63,286 words on this townshipHistory of Sandusky County, Ohio, published 1882 names this settlement in its chapter on Ballville Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Samuel and Margaret Cochran, natives of Massachusetts, after their marriage, removed to Vermont and from Vermont to Buffiilo, New York, where Mr. Cochran built a half-deck vessel and transported his family, in 181 6, to the mouth of the Huron, where the family remained about three years, during which time, in 18 18, Mrs. Cochran died. In 1819 General Cass, then Indian agent, employed Mr. Cochran to assist the mail-carriers at the mouth of Wolf Creek when the water was high. This necessitated the removal of the family to the heart of the forest. The Indians, who at that time held title to the soil, tried to persuade him to leave, but resorted to no acts of violence. He cleared a small tract and built a cabin. This was the first white man's cabin in the upper part of the township. By the time the land came into market, after the Indian title became extinguished, lie had cleared twenty acres, part of which had been planted in corn. But like many other squatter settlers, he lost his improvements in consequence of bemg overbid at the Government sales. A Ml Henninger purchased the property, but did not move to the county for several years after. Mr. Cochran afterwards purchased land on the river about seven miles below Lower Sandusky, where he lived from 1822 until his death, in 1825. He left surviving him nine children, viz: Elizabeth (Johnson), Minerva (Smith), Cynthia (Sherman), David, Samuel, Henry, Fannie (Courtright), Harriet (Seager), and Nancy (Frary). Phineas Frary (husband of Nancy Cochran) was one of the early settlers at the mouth of Wolf Creek. Their daughter, Margaret, was probably the first white child born in the township. Harriet first marriedThomas Miller, October 23, 1826. After her father died and until the time of her marriage she lived with her sister, Mrs. Frary, and assisted in clearing the farm. Mr. Miller settled on Portage River, where Woodville has since been laid out. Here he died in 1828. His widow remained and kept tavern, which is noticed more fully in the chapter on that township. She purchased land after the Seneca Reserve came into market, where the council-house of the Senecas had stood. In 1835 she married Charles Seager and removed to her farm. Mrs. Seager is one of the oldest persons in the county and the only survivor of the original settlers of Ballville. By her first husband she had two children, both of whom died young. Charles L. Seager, her second husband, was a native of New York. He came to Ohio and settled in this township in 1835. He cleared a large tract of land, and was an extensive farmer until his death, in 1843. Charles D. Seager, the only son, was born in 1843. He married, in 1858, Caroline Hoover.
Passage source: History of Sandusky County, Ohio, published 1882.
This year added to the inhabitants of township number four several families, among them being John Fitch, John Custard, and the Prior family. In 1820 permanent settlement began. The squatters, most of them, made purchases at the sales at Delaware, and the country rapidly filled up with emigrants from New York, Pennsylvania, and Southern Ohio. Many had made purchases before visiting the county, and their first realization of the swamps and forest to be contended with was upon their arrival in covered wagons with household goods, farming utensils and families. In another chapter is given a general idea of the log-cabin life of the period. The surroundings and homes in one locality were much similar to those of another. This fact is a clear illustration of the important influence of natural surroundings and conditions upon the habits and character of a people.
Passage source: History of Sandusky County, Ohio, published 1882.
The Prior family came from Virginia to Ohio in T 8 1 6. There were at that time but few white families in this county. The family consisted of three sons and two daughters. The second son had his eyes picked out in a most shocking manner. Before coming to Ohio he was engaged in a fight with a ruffian who got the better of him, and endeavored to force him "to give up." Prior's father arrived on the scene of action and charged the son not to yield. The ruffian's threat that he would pick his eyes out called from the father another charge not to give up, with the assurance that if he lost his eyesight he would take care of him all his Ufe. The boy lost both his eyes, thus paying the penalty of his father's foolish vanity. When the first sale of land occurred the blind boy appeared as a bidder, and his condition commanded so much symathy that no one appeared to bid against him. He thus became the possessor of a good farm. This family suffered another shocking accident while living in Ballville. Foxes were plenty at t'.jat time and frequently made raids on chickens, and even sometimes on young pigs. Their fre(]uent visits at the Prior homestead caused the gun to be always standing ready for the shy thieves. It happened that Henry Prior, one evening about dark, was doing some work in the pig pen, and his red hair, just visible in the dusk of evening was mistaken for a fox by his uncle, A\'ilkinson Prior, who, with steady aim, fired a fatal shot. It is not surprising that a suspicion should go forth that the mistake was feigned, but there are in the circumstances no ground for such a suspicion.
Passage source: History of Sandusky County, Ohio, published 1882.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Ballville Township - it names this place 64 more 64 times.
Fires near this place
10 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Ballville in 2002, burning about 4 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Smoking | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 September 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 21 July 2002 | Smoking | under an acre | Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 20 July 2002 | Smoking | under an acre | Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 9 June 2002 | Smoking | under an acre | Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 29 June 2002 | Smoking | under an acre | Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 16 June 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 27 April 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 18 April 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 2.0 acres | Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected near this place
12 of 425 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 425 specimens collected within 10 miles of Ballville between 1880 and 1975: 384 Animalia, 21 Plantae, 20 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. D. Selby, Adams J. M. B., Adams J. M. R. and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.
| Image | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Adiantum pedatum L. | 1880 | Keeler, L.E. | Fremont. |
 | Lepiota morganii (Peck) Sacc. | 1896 | Day | Fremont |
 | Elimia semicarinata (Say, 1829) | 1914 | Anson A. Hinkley | Sandusky River, Fremont, North America |
 | Anas americana J.F.Gmelin, 1789 | 1880 | not recorded | Sandusky, Ohio, USA |
 | Larus argentatus smithsonianus Coues, 1862 | 1881 | not recorded | Sandusky, Ohio, USA |
 | Carex frankii Kunth | 1889 | H. C. Beardslee | Green Spring. |
 | Arisaema dracontium (L.) Schott | 1890 | H. C. Beardslee Sr. | Green Springs |
| Carex haleana Olney | 1890 | H. C. Beardslee Jr. | Green Spring | |
 | Carex hyalinolepis Steud. | 1890 | Collector unknown | Green Spring. |
 | Sturnella magna magna (Linnaeus, 1758) | 1890 | Harry S. Day | Fremont |
 | Calidris alba (Pallas, 1764) | 1891 | Henninger, W. F. (Walther Frederick) | Sandusky, Ohio, USA |
 | Neotibicen canicularis (Harris, 1841) | 1891 | not recorded | Fremont |
All 425 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Ballville: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gottron Brothers Quarry | Limestone, General | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Gottron Brothers Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
6 since 2010Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ballville in 6 storm reports between 2010 and 2026: 2 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2011 | Flood | Ballville | $50,000 | Heavy rain and rapid snow melt led to a rapid runoff and flooded roads across Sandusky County. An average of two inches of rainfall fell on top of six to ten inches of heavy snow was on the ground. This snow rapidly melted as temperatures warmed into the 50s on the 28th. Up to an additional inch of water equivalent rainfall was released from the melted snow. Several people had be rescued from vehicles as the water came up. Some homes south and north of Fremont experienced basement flooding. Roads that were closed because of flooding from rivers and creeks include OH 19 between Fremont and Oak Harbor, OH 105, US 23, OH 5282. Local roads included South River Road, Haynes Street, and Fulton Streets. |
| May 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Ballville | $25,000 | An EF0 tornado touched down in rural Sandusky County just southeast of Fremont. The initial touchdown was just north of the intersection of Buchanan and McGormley Roads. The tornado then traveled northeast across open land for just over four and a half miles before lifting near the intersection of Beeler and Flora Roads. Many trees were downed along the damage path which was intermittent and no more than 50 yards in width. A few barns and outbuildings along the damage path sustained minor damage. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ballville | $15,000 | Thunderstorm winds downed a 12 inch diameter tree. The tree landed on a house and caused some damage. |
| March 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ballville | $6,000 | Power poles downed near Buchanan Road and Oak Drive in Ballville. |
| September 2015 | Hail | Ballville | - | A trained weather spotter reported nickel size hail 5 miles south of Fremont. |
| May 2011 | Flood | Ballville | - | Strong to severe thunderstorms with torrential rain moved over Northern Ohio on the 25th. Over Sandusky County as much as 2.13 inches of rain was recorded at the Fremont Water Treatment Plant during the evening hours. Runoff from these showers cause small streams and creeks to come out of banks during the early morning hours of the 26th. The Green Creek, a tributary to the Sandusky River, came out of banks and flooded County RT 181. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fremont | 1.6 miles | 13 | |
| Stony Prairie | 2.0 miles | 13 | |
| Great Lakes Village | 2.4 miles | 13 | |
| Young's Colonial Acres | 2.5 miles | 13 | |
| Golden Gate Estates | 2.5 miles | 13 | |
| Gabels Corner | 3.4 miles | 13 | |
| Havens | 3.5 miles | 13 | |
| Fourmile House Corner | 3.9 miles | 13 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Ballville | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1988406 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1064376. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
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.