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

Hamburg, Ohio

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Monroe Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45321. The Survey maps it on the New Madison quadrangle.

Hamburg within Preble County

Then and now

1953 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 33 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Hamburg, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Hamburg, surveyed 1953

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 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

2,642 words on this township

History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, published 1915 names this settlement in its chapter on Monroe Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Charles Armantrout. near Hamburg: William Brown, in section 29; John Jellison, in section 23; Isaiah Adams, near Hamburg; Jacob Baker, in section 16; Aaron Crisler, in section 26, and the Murdocks, # west of Eldorado, probably were the first settlers arriving in the township, the date of their arrival being from two to four years before the War of 1812. Josiah Davisson, who settled in section 14 in 1816, is said to have found quite a number of neighbors scattered about the township. Elias Bunger arrived about

Passage source: History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, published 1915.

There are five cemeteries in Monroe township, all under the control of the township trustees. Monroe cemetery, the largest, is in section 9 and is much used. Hamburg cemetery, just west of the town, in section 17, is little Aised. Brown cemetery lies at the eastern edge of section 12. These are probably the oldest public cemeteries, having been laid out and used from the earliest settlement of the township. The Wehrley cemetery, in section 22, was originally laid out by the Dunkards, probably between 1840 and 1850. The Stump cemetery, on the south line of section 19, just west of Banta Fork, was used as such over sixty years ago. In addition there were a few family cemeteries scattered over the township.

Passage source: History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, published 1915.

Hamburg, about a mile south of Eldorado, was settled first, Samuel Adams having started a store there at an early day. About the same time a church society of United Brethren was organized, which built a church there in 1848. Most of the business of the western part of the township was done at Hamburg and the postoffice was located there; but the railroad went through a mile north of the town, Eldorado was laid out, and postoffice and business moved to the railroad. Hamburg consequently ceased to grow,

Passage source: History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, 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 Monroe Township - it names this place 1 more 1 time.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 394 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 394 specimens collected within 10 miles of Hamburg between 1876 and 1974: 386 Animalia, 6 Plantae, 2 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Cobbe TJ, Cole, G., F. White 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
Hedwigia ciliata (Hedw.) P.Beauv.	1876	not recorded	New Paris
Steccherinum pulcherrimum (Berk. & M.A.Curtis) Banker	1925	M.L. Lohman	Eaton
Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae Schwein.	1928	Mendenhall E. W.	New Paris
Macrochilo absorptalis Walker, 1859	1929	Klots, A.B.	Lewisburg
Phalaenostola eumelusalis Walker, 1859	1929	Klots, A.B.	Lewisburg
Phalaenostola larentioides Grote, 1873	1929	Klots, A.B.	Lewisburg
Campostoma anomalum anomalum	1930	MB Trautman	Whitewater River, at New Paris, Jefferson Twp
Catostomus commersonnii commersonnii (Lacepède, 1803)	1930	MB Trautman	Whitewater River, at New Paris, Jefferson Twp
Chrosomus erythrogaster (Rafinesque, 1820)	1930	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Foster, R. (Robert)	East Fork Whitewater River, at New Paris, ~0.4 mi NW of New Paris, Jefferson township
Cottus bairdii Girard, 1850	1930	MB Trautman	Whitewater River, at New Paris, Jefferson Twp
Etheostoma blennioides Rafinesque, 1819	1930	MB Trautman	Whitewater River, at New Paris, Jefferson Twp
Etheostoma caeruleum Storer, 1845	1930	MB Trautman	Whitewater River, at New Paris, Jefferson Twp

All 394 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this place

3 since 2017

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hamburg in 3 storm reports between 2017 and 2025: 3 thunderstorm wind. 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
December 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Hamburg	$5,000	Several power poles were downed along Monroe Central Road.
July 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Hamburg	$3,000	A semi-truck was blown over on US Route 127.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Hamburg	-	The wind gust was recorded on a personal weather station at the county EMA office.

Every storm recorded in Preble 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
Eldorado	1.0 miles	9
West Manchester	2.9 miles	9
Ebenezer	3.3 miles	8
Brinley	3.4 miles	9
Gettysburg	4.0 miles	8
Browns	4.2 miles	8
Orangeburg (historical)	5.0 miles	8
Belfast (historical)	6.5 miles	12

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 Hamburg	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q22034114	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 1064780. 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.