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

Elizabethtown, Ohio

17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1909 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Wills Township. It lies in ZIP code area 43778. The Survey maps it on the Old Washington quadrangle.

Elizabethtown within Guernsey County

Then and now

1909 to 1994

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Elizabethtown, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Elizabethtown, surveyed 1909

Topographic sheets covering this place

17 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

4,881 words on this township

Portrait and Biographical Record of Guernsey County, Ohio, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County, Together with Biographies and Portraits of All the Presidents of the United States, published 1895 names this settlement in its chapter on Wills Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

This enterprising village is near the center of the county, and is situated upon the National Pike, about eight miles east of Cambridge. Its nearest railroad station is Morgan Junction, distant about four miles, but a new road noticed elsewhere, it is hoped, will brigliten the future and give to this place the prestige it once enjoyed as one of the leading towns of the couutj'. It has a population of about six hundred, and is among the most wealtliy towns of the county. It has many fine and substantial private residences, a town hall and benevolent societies. It has a good brick school building, two stories in height, giving employment to four teachers. The officers of the town are S. B.Clemens, Mayor; Alfred Skinner, Jr., Marshal; D. E. Patterson, Treasurer; James Mason, Clerk.

Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Guernsey County, Ohio, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County, Together with Biographies and Portraits of All the Presidents of the United States, published 1895.

Levi Williams, in 1796, located where Washington now stands, and did the first clearing in Wills Township. In 1800 he moved to what is now AVashington Township. He was a great hunter, and was First Lieutenant in the Indian War under Wayne, and also under General Harrison, in 1812. His son John was born here, March 8, 1806. It appears that besides Graham and Williams, a John Mahoney is also claimed to have been the first settler in the county. It is probable that these three arrived at or about the same time.

Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Guernsey County, Ohio, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County, Together with Biographies and Portraits of All the Presidents of the United States, published 1895.

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 Wills Township.

Fires near this place

14 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Elizabethtown between 2007 and 2019, burning about 14 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 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
Debris and open burning8
Arson/incendiarism3
Recreation and ceremony1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
16 September 2015Arson/incendiarismunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resources1862
9 May 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resources1212
24 April 2019Arson/incendiarismunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resources15174
17 April 2009Debris and open burningunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
12 April 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resources7826
1 April 2014Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
7 March 2009Debris and open burning2.5 acresOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
7 March 2009Debris and open burningunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Guernsey County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 202 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 202 specimens collected within 10 miles of Elizabethtown between 1875 and 1975: 117 Animalia, 74 Plantae, 11 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Adams, W. (William), Adams, W. (William), Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) et al., Adams, W.; Adams, S. 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 SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Synechoblastus rupestris (F.Desp.) Trevis.Synechoblastus rupestris (F.Desp.) Trevis.1902F.O. GroverBlack Swamp
Specimen of Chrysops vittatus Wiedemann, 1821Chrysops vittatus Wiedemann, 18211916not recorded
Specimen of Tabanus sulcifrons Osten Sacken, 1878Tabanus sulcifrons Osten Sacken, 18781916not recorded
A photograph of the species Asclepias tuberosa, not of this specimenAsclepias tuberosa L.1875s.c.Fairmont
A photograph of the species Enslenia albida, not of this specimenEnslenia albida Nutt.1875s.c.Fairmont
A photograph of the species Impatiens pallida, not of this specimenImpatiens pallida Nutt.1875Lloyd, Curtis GatesFairmont
A photograph of the species Valsa nivea, not of this specimenValsa nivea (Hoffm.) Fr.1906Wilson C. B.Oberlin near Black Swamp
A photograph of the species Dothiorella Sacc., not of this specimenDothiorella Sacc., 18801910Dawson W.Byesville
A photograph of the species Taphrina caerulescens, not of this specimenTaphrina caerulescens (Desm. & Mont.) Tul.1912Bartenstein T. E.Warrentown
A photograph of the species Isoetes muricata, not of this specimenIsoetes muricata Durieu1913L. S. Hazel M, D.D. HopkinsBrady's Lake.
Apidae1916not recorded
A photograph of the species Apis mellifera, not of this specimenApis mellifera Linnaeus, 17581916not recorded

All 202 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Elizabethtown: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Miller PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Guernsey 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Easton1.2 miles17
Old Washington2.0 miles17
Middlebourne3.9 miles16
Gibson4.1 miles13
Lore City4.5 miles13
New Gottingen4.7 miles13
Winterset4.7 miles17
Warrentown4.9 miles17

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 ElizabethtownAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q22034008The 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 1048701. 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.