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

Olivesburg, Ohio

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1908 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Weller Township. It lies in ZIP code area 44805. The Survey maps it on the Olivesburg quadrangle.

Olivesburg within Richland County

Then and now

1908 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 86 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Olivesburg, surveyed 1994

Topographic sheet of Olivesburg, surveyed 1908

Topographic sheets covering this place

15 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

10,046 words on this township

History of Richland County Ohio, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Weller Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The township contains within its limits a very fine body of land, embracing every variety of soil, and well adapted for the production of grass or grain, as well as every variety of fruit and vegetables. The Black Fork is the principal stream of water and traverses the township from west to east, entering at the northwest corner, near Urick's mill, and continuing an eastward course to Linn's mill, then turns south to the bridge, on' the Wells farm, in the southeast corner of the township. The Whetstone, coming in from the north, and the Brubaker Run from the south, are important branches. The

Passage source: History of Richland County Ohio, published 1880.

The wooded portions of the hill are covered with a dense growth of chestnut, hickory and oak timber. There are men living on the hill now who can remember when the tall chestnut trees - now 100 feet high - were no thicker than a man's thumb. When the abovigines held possession, they burned the forests over annually to prevent the undergrowth from obstructing the distant view of game. Heavy timber would not be affected by the fire, but the land was no doubt impoverished by consuming the decaying vegetable matter.

Passage source: History of Richland County Ohio, published 1880.

Among the first enterprises was the manufacture of whisky ; corn, being very low in price, could be made into whisky and sold at 25 cents a gallon. It constituted the chief article of commerce in those days, considerable being sent to Michigan, and was considered "legal tender" in any kind of trade. A few yards from where Windsor Station now stands, a distillery was run by a Deacon Williamson, who came from Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1817. The good Deacon, who was indeed a worthy man, would, after putting his buzzing, seething enginery in operation, take his seat at the place where the precious fluid made its exit, and, rubbing his hands together, would begin to sing - «Come, Thou fount of every blessing."'

Passage source: History of Richland County Ohio, published 1880.

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 Weller Township - it names this place 14 more 14 times.

Fires near this place

2 since 2020

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Olivesburg between 2020 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	2

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
14 March 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	15503
7 November 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	15894

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Adario

Every fire recorded in Richland County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 614 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 614 specimens collected within 10 miles of Olivesburg between 1835 and 1975: 486 Plantae, 120 Animalia, 8 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. S. Percival, Berra, T. (Tim), C F WALKER 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
Athyrium angustum (Willd.) C.Presl	1895	Wilkinson, E.	Mansfield.
Alisma subcordatum Raf.	1835	Wilkinson, E.	Mansfield
Carex scoparia Schkuhr ex Willd.	1835	Wilkinson, E.	Mansfield
Carex stricta Lam.	1835	Herb. of E. Wilkinson	Mansfield
Penthorum sedoides L.	1835	E. Wilkinson	Mansfield
Verbascum thapsus L.	1835	Wilkinson, E.	Mansfield
Achillea millefolium L.	1836	Wilkinson, E.	Mansfield
Angelica atropurpurea L.	1836	Wilkinson, E.	Mansfield
Apocynum androsaemifolium L.	1836	Wilkinson, E.	Mansfield
Epilobium coloratum Biehler	1836	Wilkinson, E.	Mansfield
Gaura biennis L.	1836	Wilkinson, E.	Mansfield
Hamamelis virginiana L.	1836	Wilkinson, E.	Mansfield

All 614 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Olivesburg: 3 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Clay, Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Richland Pit	Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Ohio Pit	Clay	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Ohio Pit	Clay	Past Producer
Richland Pit	Clay	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Richland County

Storms near this place

6 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Olivesburg in 6 storm reports between 2002 and 2019: 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. 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 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Olivesburg	1 hurt, $15,000	The Emergency Manager reported that a tree fell on a man on Route 603 northwest of Olivesburg. Numerous trees were also reported down across the County.
November 2002	Hail	Olivesburg	$5,000	Quarter size hail was observed three miles west of Olivesburg.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Olivesburg	$2,000	Several trees and power lines were blown down.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Olivesburg	-	Winds were estimated by a trained spotter at 60 mph.
May 2004	Tornado (F0)	Olivesburg	-	Law enforcement officers witnessed a tornado touch down in a field along Clayburg Road in northern Weller Township. This location is approximately three miles northwest of Olivesburg. The tornado was only briefly on the ground and caused no damage.
November 2002	Hail	Olivesburg	-	Golf ball to quarter size hail was observed three miles west of Olivesburg.

Every storm recorded in Richland 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
Epworth	3.2 miles	14
Adario	3.5 miles	15
Shenandoah	4.1 miles	15
Pavonia	4.4 miles	14
Windsor	5.4 miles	14
Fleming Falls	5.9 miles	14
Rome	6.1 miles	14
Ganges	7.2 miles	14

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 Olivesburg	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7087990	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 1065203. 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.

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.