Block
Layman, Ohio
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Fairfield Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45724. The Survey maps it on the Watertown quadrangle.
Then and now
1902 to 1994The same ground, surveyed 92 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
Compare 1902 against another survey:
Topographic sheets covering this place
16 sheetsMatched 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.
- 1902 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1949 USGS Clarksburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Clarksburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Clarksburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:24000
- 1960 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:24000
- 1960 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS Clarksburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:100000
- 1988 USGS Clarksburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1994 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:24000
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Fairfield township, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
Epidemic
In 1820 this locality was visited by some kind of fever called by the settlers the "cold plague," and such were the ravages of the disease that it required all the energies of the able-bodied citizens to care for the afflicted ones. It is stated that over fifty persons were carried off by this awful scourge.
In the county-history sources
7,590 words on this townshipHistory of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881 names this settlement in its chapter on Fairfield Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Phineas Dunsmore with his wife, Polly, and seven children, among whom was Lucius P., came to what is now Fairfield township, then Wesley, Washington county, Ohio, in 1822. The family came from Goshen, New Hampshire. Lucius was then twelve years old, having been born on the twenty-fifth of January, 1810. Mr. Dunsmore brought his family through New York State and travelled along the beach of Lake Erie until they reached Ashtabula county, Ohio. Here the rest of the family tarried with friends until Mr. Dunsmore, with his brother and eldest son, Horace, came down to Washington county to "view the land," The result of this inspection was that Mr. Dunsmore traded his property in New Hampshire for a section and a fraction in Wesley township, comprising nine hundred and five acres. This purchase was made of James Brick, who was one of the Ohio company. Mr Dunsmore then went for his family, and they came down in the same wagons in which they had come from New Hampshire, arriving at their new home on the fourth of July, 1822. A log house was immediately put up. It was of very primitive construction. They had no nails, and so were compelled to secure their roof with weight poles. This house stood about a mile northwest of where Layman post office now is.
Passage source: History of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881.
Fishtown (Layman post office) is a small village of a few houses on the State road, in the northeastern part of the township. James Lake kept the first store here in 1837, which stood immediately west of the present store. He was succeeded in the business by Daniel Fish, after whom the town was named.
Passage source: History of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Fires near this place
2 since 2010Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Layman between 2010 and 2020, burning about 1 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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 burning | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 March 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Ohio Department of Natural Resources | 15509 |
| 21 March 2010 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Ohio Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected near this place
12 of 165 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 165 specimens collected within 10 miles of Layman between 1911 and 1975: 143 Animalia, 15 Fungi, 7 Plantae. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Albaugh, D. W. (Douglas W.), Albaugh, Douglas W, Collector(s): R. J. Reynolds 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 | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Petrova houseri Miller, 1959 | 1954 | W. Miller | Veto |
 | Obliquaria reflexa Rafinesque, 1820 | 1966 | Stansbery | Windsor Township, Muskingum River, Below Luke Chute Dam, 10 Mile SE Of Mcconnelsville |
 | Cystopteris bulbifera (L.) Bernh. | 1911 | O. E. Jennings | NW corner Kelly's Island. |
 | Hybopsis aestivalis (Girard, 1856) | 1921 | Wickliff, E. L. (Edward L.) | South Branch Wolf Creek, within Watertown township, near Watertown, Watertown township |
 | Etheostoma nigrum Rafinesque, 1820 | 1930 | Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Foster, R. (Robert) | Wolf Creek tributary, within Wesley township, near Stockport, Wesley township |
 | Lampetra aepyptera (Abbott, 1860) | 1930 | Eggleston, H. K. | South Fork South Branch Wolf Creek, near Deming Rd, ~2.4 miles south of Watertown OH, Barlow township |
 | Rhinichthys atratulus meleagris Agassiz, 1854 | 1930 | Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Foster, R. (Robert) | Wolf Creek tributary, within Wesley township, near Stockport, Wesley township |
 | Ambystoma maculatum (Shaw, 1802) | 1931 | Walker, C. F. (Charles F.) & Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) | Belpre Twp., Washington Co., Ohio |
 | Ambystoma opacum (Gravenhorst, 1807) | 1931 | Walker, C. F. (Charles F.) & Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) | Belpre Twp., Washington Co., Ohio |
 | Desmognathus fuscus (Rafinesque, 1820) | 1931 | Walker, C. F. (Charles F.) & Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) | Belpre Twp., Washington Co., Ohio |
 | Amphinemura nigritta (Provancher, 1876) | 1941 | W. C. Stehr | Cutler |
 | Ammocrypta pellucida (Putnam, 1863) | 1973 | Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Albaugh, D. | Muskingum River, below Luke Chute lock and Dam, 4 miles east of Stockport OH, Windsor township |
All 165 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Storms near this place
2 since 2013Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Layman in 2 storm reports between 2013 and 2024: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Layman | $25,000 | Straight line wind damage occurred near McDonald Road. The path was approximately 300 yards wide and three quarters of a mile long. ||A survey team estimated a maximum wind gust of 85 mph.||A home along McDonald Road had some flashing ripped off with debris logged into its siding. Debris also broke a few windows. A small section of a barn roof was blown off. An old wooden garage, that was used as storage, was shifted off its foundation after its door was blown in. ||Several trees and large branches were damaged. Some trees were snapped off. Old corn stalks were leveled in a field. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Layman | $3,000 | Tree and power line damage were observed along McDonald Road in the Layman community. |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Napier | 2.1 miles | 17 | |
| Tick Ridge | 3.1 miles | 17 | |
| Barlow | 3.2 miles | 16 | |
| Dunbar | 3.2 miles | 17 | |
| Vincent | 3.5 miles | 16 | |
| Qualey | 3.8 miles | 13 | |
| Patten Mills | 4.8 miles | 14 | |
| Cutler | 4.9 miles | 13 |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1062847. 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.
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.