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

Kunkle, Ohio

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1913 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Madison Township. It lies in ZIP code area 43531. The Survey maps it on the Alvordton quadrangle.

Kunkle within Williams County

Then and now

1913 to 1990

The same ground, surveyed 77 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Kunkle, surveyed 1990

Topographic sheet of Kunkle, surveyed 1913

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

24,412 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 Madison Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The first settler of the township was Cyrus Barrett, who located with his family of ten members in the southeastern part, in 1838, and established his home near the present site of Kunkle. The Barretts came from Seneca county, New York, and built a rude log cabin in the Madison township wilds, chinking the same with mortar of mud and covering it with a roof of bark. The cabin was not larger than 18x20 feet; was built in such a hurry and with such a lack of assistance that the logs wrere but little better than poles ; and it was graced with a very large chimney, made of sticks and clay, that was peculiarly ornamental as well as useful. The architectural design is thus mentioned in detail, as the building was the finest in the township; and it is reasonable to conclude, judging fiom ordinary human emotion and character, that Mr. Barrett was the proudest, as well as the wealthiest resident. A well-populated temporary encampment of native North Americans was standing on the Little St. Joseph, near the forks, at this time ; and these nomadic people were, perhaps, Mr. Barrett's nearest neighbors - nearest in that they visited his humble abode more than occasionally and remained with him longer than necessary, as the wants of these humble denizens of the woods led their natures to covet almost everything of value in the white man's possession. They were mild, but importunate, and took evasion or negation to their demands with all the admirable imperturbability that is usually ascribed as a mental endowment of that product of modern civilization - the tramp. But, withal, they were interesting if not pleasant neighbors, as the family of Mr. Barrett had ample proof.

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.

Kunkle is -a small village on the Detroit and Montpelier branch of the Wabash Railroad, the only town on a steam railway in Madison township. The old place known as Kunkle's Corners was never properly laid out and recorded, but its later pretentions have been as great as those of many villages which were first placed on the map by that method. As it grew in importance it was given the name of Kunkle in honor of an early merchant in the place. It is a pleasant little town of about three hundred and fifty inhabitants, in the center of a rich agricultural district. There are several mercantile houses, a grist-mill, mechanical shops, produce houses and a fine school. Philip Weidner was the first postmaster and Augustus Moore was the first merchant. The village does a thriving business.

As earlv as 1846, the Evangelists and the United Brethren held meetings in the old brick school house in the southeastern part of the township, and finally at Kunkle's Corners. It is said that early preaching was held at the old cabin of the Barretts as early as 1843, the ministers being circuit riders who appeared about once a month. The Presbyterian Church at Kunkle was built about 1872.

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 Madison Township - it names this place 3 more 3 times.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 182 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 182 specimens collected within 10 miles of Kunkle between 1893 and 1974: 182 Animalia. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Adler, K. K., Barnes, T. N., Bauer, L. 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
Gomphus exilis Selys, 1854	1946	H. Price	Northwest Township, Nettle Creek
Moxostoma erythrurum (Rafinesque, 1818)	1893	P. Kirsch	Tiffin River, West Unity, Ohio
Sciurus niger Linnaeus, 1758	1926	Collector(s): unknown	No specific locality recorded
Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758	1927	Price, H. (Homer)	Evansport, Williams, Ohio, USA
Campostoma anomalum anomalum	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Mill Creek, within Ex east Mill Creek township, near Alvordton, Mill Creek township
Esox vermiculatus Lesueur, 1846	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Nettle Creek, within Bridgewater township, near Montpelier, Bridgewater township
Etheostoma nigrum Rafinesque, 1820	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Nettle Creek, within Bridgewater township, near Montpelier, Bridgewater township
Micropterus salmoides (Lacepède, 1802)	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Nettle Creek, within Bridgewater township, near Montpelier, Bridgewater township
Notropis photogenis (Cope, 1865)	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	West Branch Saint Joseph River, Ex east Bridgewater township, ~2 mi SW of Pioneer, Bridgewater township
Notropis spilopterus (Cope, 1867)	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	West Branch Saint Joseph River, Ex east Bridgewater township, ~2 mi SW of Pioneer, Bridgewater township
Notropis umbratilis (Girard, 1856)	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Mill Creek, within Ex east Mill Creek township, near Alvordton, Mill Creek township
Pomoxis annularis Rafinesque, 1818	1929	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard)	Nettle Creek, within Bridgewater township, near Montpelier, Bridgewater township

All 182 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 Kunkle: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. 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	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Pioneer Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Williams County

Storms near this place

2 since 2019

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Kunkle in 2 storm reports between 2019 and 2023: 2 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
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Kunkle	$1,000	A large tree was down in Kunkle.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Kunkle	-	Local dispatch reported a tree was blown down.

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
Jefferson Estates	3.6 miles	14
Holiday City	3.7 miles	13
Alvordton	3.7 miles	14
Baldwin (historical)	3.7 miles	14
Hillcrest	4.1 miles	13
Pioneer	4.3 miles	14
Hamer	4.3 miles	14
Primrose	4.3 miles	14

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1064955. 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.

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.