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

Columbia, Ohio

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1939 and the latest in 1992. It stands in Northwest Township. It lies in ZIP code area 43518. The Survey maps it on the Clear Lake quadrangle.

Columbia within Williams County

Then and now

1939 to 1992

The same ground, surveyed 53 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Columbia, surveyed 1992

Topographic sheet of Columbia, surveyed 1939

Compare 1939 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

16 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

3,785 words on this township

The County of Williams : a History of Williams County, Ohio, from the Earliest Days, with Special Chapters on Various Subjects, Including Each of the Different Townships ; Also a Biographical Department, published 1905 names this settlement in its chapter on Northwest Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Families in the vicinity of Columbia and in the northern part of Florence township were the nucleus to a church organization, which is still in existence, and which is given more extended mention in the chapter on Florence township. The Close Communion Baptists organized a small class at Thomas Whaley's at quite an early day, but later met at the school house near there. A Free Will Baptist class was early organized at William Billings', but neither of these classes survived many years.

Passage source: The County of Williams : a History of Williams County, Ohio, from the Earliest Days, with Special Chapters on Various Subjects, Including Each of the Different Townships ; Also a Biographical Department, published 1905.

A steam saw-mill was built during the early 6o's by Alfred Gamber, and was located at Columbia. It passed to a Mr. Ford and several others, and after being operated about ten years was removed. Another mill was built in the western part of the township, about 1870. and was in operation a number of years. The Spielman steam mill did a flourishing business for a considerable time in the same part of the township. A steam saw-mill was erected in the northeastern part, near the Winebrinerian church, by Ezra Welch, about 1872. Pie continued to operate it until his death, when it passed into the hands of Plenry Esterline, and at the demise of the latter it ceased to do business and was finally converted into a barn.

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 Northwest Township - it names this place 1 more 1 time.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 246 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 246 specimens collected within 10 miles of Columbia between 1895 and 1969: 243 Animalia, 2 Plantae, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Barnes, T. N., Bauer, L., CLARENCE CLARK 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
unnamed	1897	F. L. Stevens	Columbia.
Gomphus exilis Selys, 1854	1946	H. Price	Nettle Creek near Nettle Lake
Gomphus lividus Selys, 1854	1946	H. Price	Nettle Creek, at ripples near Nettle Lake
Aspidium Sw.	1895	Collector(s): Edwin Lincoln Moseley	Florence
Catostomus commersonii (Lacepède, 1803)	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Nettle Creek, at inlet to Nettle Lake in Northwest township, 4.7 mi S of Camden, Northwest township
Chaenobryttus gulosus (Cuvier, 1829)	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Nettle Lake, Northwest township, ~5.4 mi SE of Camden, Northwest township
Erimyzon sucetta kennerlii (Girard, 1856)	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Nettle Lake, Northwest township, ~5.4 mi SE of Camden, Northwest township
Esox vermiculatus Lesueur, 1846	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Nettle Lake, Northwest township, ~5.4 mi SE of Camden, Northwest township
Etheostoma microperca Jordan & Gilbert, 1888	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Nettle Lake, Northwest township, ~5.4 mi SE of Camden, Northwest township
Etheostoma nigrum Rafinesque, 1820	1929	MB Trautman	Nettle Lake, northern northwest township
Etheostoma spectabile (Agassiz, 1854)	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Bear Creek, at Edon, ~0.3 mi N of Edon, Florence township
Fundulus notatus (Rafinesque, 1820)	1929	MB Trautman	Nettle Lake, northern northwest township

All 246 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this place

3 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Columbia in 3 storm reports between 2005 and 2019: 2 thunderstorm wind, 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
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbia	-	A Ohio Department of Transportation sensor at the intersection of US 20 and State Route 49 measured a 59 mph wind gust.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbia	-	A tree was blown down.
June 2019	Hail	Columbia	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Williams 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
Berlin	2.4 miles	14
Cooney	2.7 miles	14
Billingstown	4.2 miles	16
Nettle Lake	4.7 miles	14
Northwest	5.0 miles	14
Edon	5.4 miles	14
Edon Home Court	5.4 miles	14
Ainger	5.6 miles	14

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 Columbia	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q22133669	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 1048617. 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.