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

North Star, Ohio

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1908 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Wabash Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45362. The Survey maps it on the North Star quadrangle. 224 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,004 feet above sea level.

North Star within Darke County

Population over time

2 figures

North Star fell from 236 to 224 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	236
2020	224	-12 (-5%)

Then and now

1908 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 78 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of North Star, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of North Star, surveyed 1908

Compare 1908 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 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

2,927 words on this township

The History of Darke County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County; Its Cities, Towns, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men;, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Wabash Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

In 1870. a frame church was erected, the third in this place ; and this was duly consecrated by Rev. Wycke. During the spring of 1876, the erection of a meeting-house was contracted for by A. R. Catterell, at North Star. On its completion, it was dedicated by Rev. R. D. Oldfield. assisted by Rev. T. D. Howe. This was during the time when Rev. M. Omerod was on the Dawn Circuit. There is a Christian Church in what is called the Holsapple settlement, on the Wabash, north of the center of Section 12. about two and one-half miles from North Star. It is a frame, and was built in 1871.

Passage source: The History of Darke County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County; Its Cities, Towns, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men;, published 1880.

In the line of manufacture there are two tile factories, one operated by Gilbert & Trissell, formerly by Harvey Burns and Benjamin Gilbert, and the other by Ephraim Trissell and Alvin Jones. A saw-mill was erected at North Star in 1852, by John and David Trissell. To this mill, grist works were added in 1858 by Stephen J. Houston. The property is now owned by Andrew Alexander. Another mill stood a half-mile east of North Star. It was built b}* David Trissell and was burned down in 1878. The establishment of mail routes gave employment to Freeman Whittaker, who was the first to carry the mail in Wabash. In accord with the custom and necessity of the times, small cemeteries were laid out adjacent the churches ; there were three in the township, located respectively at Shook's Chapel, Holsapple's and at Perrysville.

North Star is the principal village in Wabash, and stands one-fourth mile west of the center of the township, and in the center north and south. It was laid out in 1852. It is distant from Berlin ten miles, from Rossville six, from Celina seventeen, and from Greenville eighteen. The first sale of lots was made by H. Puterbaugh from Section 17. Sales were also made by D. H. T. Sullow from Section 9, and by S. J. Houston out of Section 8. None have been sold from Section 16, of which Mrs. Myra Wallace owns an eighth, and upon which she has a fine dwelling. On the corner section opposite is a general store building kept by Peter Groff, and built in 1852 by William Edwards, who put in the first stock of goods. It has changed proprietors a number of times in the interim from Edwards' till Groff's time, and both building and lot belong to the Campbell heirs. The church here, as stated, was begun in 1876, but not finished until recently. A blacksmith named William Pierson built and operated a shop at the village in 1860. The saw-mill previously noted does an extensive business. The population of North Star is about one hundred and fift}'.

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 Wabash Township - it names this place 6 more 6 times.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 103 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 103 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Star between 1915 and 1964: 97 Animalia, 6 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Athearn, Herbert D., H. Price, H.L. Lewis 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
Tilletia laevis J.G.Kühn	1919	not recorded	Versailles
Ustilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle	1919	s.n.	Versailles
Ustilago tritici (Bjerk.) Rostr.	1919	H.L. Lewis	Versailles
Butorides virescens virescens (Linnaeus, 1758)	1915	Householder, V.	Ausonia, 1 mi E
Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1915	Householder, V.	1 mi. E Ausonia
Falco sparverius sparverius Linnaeus, 1758	1915	Householder, V.	Ansonia, 1 mi E
Geothlypis trichas (Linnaeus, 1766)	1915	Householder, V.	Ausonia, 1 mi. E
Icterus galbula (Linnaeus, 1758)	1915	Householder, V.	1 mi. E Ausoria
Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1915	Householder, V.	Ansonia, 1 mi E
Melospiza melodia melodia (A.Wilson, 1810)	1915	Householder, V.	1 mi. E of Ansonia
Passerina cyanea (Linnaeus, 1766)	1915	Householder, V.	1 mi. E Ausouia
Pooecetes gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)	1915	Housholder	1 mi. E. Ausoria

All 103 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this place

5 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names North Star in 5 storm reports between 2001 and 2023: 5 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
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	North Star	$7,000	Trees were reported down on a house due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	North Star	$1,000	A tree was downed.
May 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	North Star	$1,000	Trees down on North Star Rd.
May 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	North Star	$1,000	Trees down on Medford Rd.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	North Star	-	A trained spotter estimated the wind gust.

Every storm recorded in Darke 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
Delvin (historical)	1.9 miles	12
New Weston	4.0 miles	12
Yorkshire	4.0 miles	15
Brock	4.1 miles	12
Osgood	4.1 miles	15
Strakers (historical)	4.2 miles	15
Rossburg	4.8 miles	12
Frenchtown	5.9 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 North Star	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2016900	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 1043972. 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.