Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Blanchester, Ohio

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1907 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Marion Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45107. It stands on Whitakers Run. The Survey maps it on the Blanchester quadrangle.

Blanchester within Clinton County

Then and now

1907 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 79 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Blanchester, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Blanchester, surveyed 1907

Topographic sheets covering this place

14 sheets

Matched 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.

In the county-history sources

3,034 words on this township

History of Clinton County Ohio, published 1915 names this settlement in its chapter on Marion Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Reuben Gillis was another early settler of this township. He was born on the El'<horn, eleven miles north of Lexington, Scott county, on August 8, 1789. His father 'b -ught him to Ohio in May, 1799, when he settled in Warren county. From here the 'gon later moved to Clinton, near where Blanchester now is, and where he continued to reside until his death, in 1877. When he came to the Blanchester neighborhood, Jonathan

Passage source: History of Clinton County Ohio, published 1915.

The first white child born in the township was Benjamin Baldwin, who was born on October 15, 1815, and who for years lived on a farm near Blanchester and is still remembered by the residents of that community. At this time the nearest neighborhood was about Collins' tavern, now called Villar's chapel, a distance of seven miles.

Passage source: History of Clinton County Ohio, published 1915.

This township was formed by an act of the county commissioners, August 5, 1830. The first election in the township was held in the woods near the cabfn of Tobias Barnett (sometimes called Bernard), on September 4, 1830, when the following officers were elected: John Mitchell, John Stephens and John Salisbury, trustees; Hiram Anderson, clerk, and Edward Crossen, Jr., treasurer. The farm on which this election was held is on the Twin pike, leading from Blanchester to Wilmington, about one and a half miles northeast of the former place. John Cooper was elected justice of the peace the following November. The following composed the electorate of the township at this election of the justice of the peace: Jonathan Baldwin, G. Morrison, Hiram Anderson, Recompense Stansbury, John Salisbury, Nicholas Burns, Thomas Elsey, Jonathan Kirk, William Brown, Irwine Garrison, Benjamin Garrison, James Bryant. William Clark, William Hudson, Salby Hudson, Jeremiah Rowan, John Caddle, Lewis Nebber, Reuben Gillis, John Smith. Azel Lyon. Elisha Whitacre, Edward Crossen. Israel Lidles, Isaac Coons, William Sharrow, John Trump, Benjamin Murphy, James Cochran, David Fisher and Isaac Martin.

Passage source: History of Clinton County Ohio, published 1915.

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 Marion Township - it names this place 9 more 9 times.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 337 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 337 specimens collected within 10 miles of Blanchester between 1906 and 1973: 270 Animalia, 49 Fungi, 15 Plantae, 3 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. R. Gaufin, A.R. Gaufin, H.H. Ross, Arden R. Gaufin 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Boletellus chrysenteroides (Snell) Snell	1935	Cooke, William Bridge	Cowan's Creek
Boletus bicolor Raddi	1935	Cooke, William Bridge	Cowan's Creek
Clavaria cristatula Henn. & E.Nyman	1935	Cooke, William Bridge	Cowan's Creek.
Cicada sayi Smith & Grossbeck, 1907	1906	W. Templin	Blanchester
Ditrichum pallidum (Hedw.) Hampe	1913	Braun, E. Lucy
Cladonia coniocraea (Flörke) Spreng.	1923	Braun, E. Lucy	Klock's Crossing
Catharinea undulata (Hedw.) F.Weber & D.Mohr	1930	Fulford, Margaret H.	North of Westboro
Helodium paludosum (Austin) Austin ex Broth.	1930	Fulford, Margaret	north of Westboro
Plagiothecium denticulatum (Hedw.) Schimp.	1930	Fulford, Margaret	north of Westboro
Polytrichum ohioense Renauld & Cardot	1930	Fulford, Margaret	north of Westboro
Boletus L.	1935	Cooke, William Bridge	Cowan's Creek
Clavaria muscoides Linnaeus, 1753	1935	Cooke, William Bridge	Cowan Creek

All 337 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this place

27 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blanchester in 27 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 12 thunderstorm wind, 9 hail, 3 flood, 1 tornado. The reports record 1 death. 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
March 2008	Flood	Blanchester	1 killed, $10,000	Seven homes were evacuated due to high water in Clarksville. A 54 year old woman attempting to cross a swollen stream was swept away and drowned. Numerous roads were flooded throughout the county.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$30,000	Six trees and tree limbs were downed due to thunderstorm winds. Some limbs fell onto power lines causing power outages. One tree fell on a truck in downtown Blanchester. A camper was also blown into a field.
May 2009	Hail	Blanchester	$30,000	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$10,000	Trees downed, one of which fell on a van.
April 2002	Hail	Blanchester	$10,000	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Blanchester	$10,000	no account filed
April 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$5,000	Sheet metal was removed from a structure in Blanchester.
September 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$5,000	Trees knocked down.
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$4,000	Large trees were knocked down.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$3,000	Several trees were downed due to thunderstorm winds.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$3,000	A few structures in the Blanchester area received damage from strong winds.
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$3,000	Trees and power lines were downed.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$3,000	Trees were downed.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$2,000	A partial sheet metal roof was removed from an outbuilding.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$1,000	One large branch was broken off in Blanchester due to thunderstorm winds.
April 2008	Hail	Blanchester	$1,000	no account filed
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanchester	$500	Several large limbs were knocked down on a residential property.
June 2025	Flash Flood	Blanchester	-	Water was rushing across a roadway.
June 2025	Flood	Blanchester	-	High water was reported near the intersection of Red Barn Lane and Watkins Road.
September 2022	Flood	Blanchester	-	High water was reported on State Route 123 north of Shawnee Trace Road.
December 2015	Heavy Rain	Blanchester	-	The public reported minor flooding in Blanchester.
July 2006	Tornado (F0)	Blanchester	-	A tornado briefly touched down in a cornfield, causing some crop damage.
April 2017	Hail	Blanchester	-	no account filed
April 2016	Hail	Blanchester	-	no account filed
March 2011	Hail	Blanchester	-	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Blanchester	-	no account filed
July 1994	Hail	Blanchester	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Clinton County

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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Pansy	4.0 miles	14
Midland	4.2 miles	14
Westboro	4.2 miles	14
Clarksville	7.5 miles	13
Cuba	8.1 miles	11
Klocks Crossing	8.4 miles	11
Jonesboro	8.7 miles	11
Martinsville	9.5 miles	11

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1038105. 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.

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.

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.