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

Oran, Ohio

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1909 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Cynthian Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45365. It stands on East Painter Creek. The Survey maps it on the Fort Loramie quadrangle.

Oran within Shelby County

Then and now

1909 to 1986

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 Oran, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Oran, surveyed 1909

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.

1909 USGS Loramie quadrangle1:62500
1911 USGS Loramie quadrangle1:62500
1944 USGS Loramie quadrangle1:62500
1953 USGS Muncie quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS Muncie quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS Muncie quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS Muncie quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS Muncie quadrangle1:250000
1956 USGS Muncie quadrangle1:250000
1961 USGS Fort Loramie quadrangle1:24000
1961 USGS Fort Loramie quadrangle1:24000
1986 USGS Piqua quadrangle1:100000
1986 USGS Piqua quadrangle1:100000
1986 USGS Piqua quadrangle1:100000

In the county-history sources

4,257 words on this township

History of Shelby County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, published 1913 names this settlement in its chapter on Cynthian Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The people of Cynthian township are well supplied with school facilities, there being eight special school districts, the officials of these being selected from among the leading men of the township. Hopewell special school district's officers for 191 1 and 1912: S. M. Winemiller, president; F. B. Miller, clerk, William Wiley, treasurer, and Charles Snow and Nathan. Cromes, in 191 1, the only change in 1912 being that Henry Bodemiller took the place of Nathan Cromes. Grisez special school district for 191 1 had John P. Lallemand for president ; John Grisez for clerk ; Henry Achbach for treasurer, with Blaize Cardo and Philip Cardo as other members of the board. The officers and members for 1912 were: Jesse Barder, president; John Grisez, clerk ; J. P. Lallemand, treasurer, and Xavier Cardo and Henry Achbach. Turner special school district's board of education for 1912 : Henry Sherman, president; Peter Eilerman, clerk; Frank Turner, treasurer, and N. A. Paulus, William Kloeker and Jacob Batty. Basinburg special school district in 191 1 had John Swartz as president, Michael Loy, clerk, Henry Harrod, treasurer, and Joseph H. Kessler and John Martz, while in 1912 the board was as follows: J. H. Kessler, president; Michael Loy. clerk; Henry Harrod, treasurer, and Frank Lindhaus, John Lengerich and Joseph Wurtz. Short special school district board for 191 1 had Henry Eilerman for president ; Henry Holscher for clerk ; Charles Broerman for treasurer and G. W. Short and Joseph Winner, no change being made in 191 2, except that John C. Short took the place of Joseph Winner. Forest' special school district for 191 1 elected J. H. Rhodehamel as president of its board; Charles C. Sny- der, clerk, David A. McKinstry for treasurer and Robert and Leander Wright as the other members. In 1912 the officials and members were: Leander Wright, William Jelly and W. W. Widener, the same officials serving. Oran special school district's board of education for 1912 had D. W. Christman as president ; George Wyatt as treasurer ; E. J. Eny'art as clerk, with David Swab andA. Fagan as other members. Other school statistics may be found in the chapter on education.

Passage source: History of Shelby County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, published 1913.

Oran Christian Church - This church originally known as Cynthian Christian church, was founded in 1833, its first members being Samuel Penrod and wife, Isaac Short and wife, Isaac Mann, and George and Samuel Butt and their wives. A church building was erected in 1851 and the congregation is now presided over by Rev. Cain.

Passage source: History of Shelby County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, published 1913.

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 Cynthian Township - it names this place 1 more 1 time.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 227 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 227 specimens collected within 10 miles of Oran between 1897 and 1967: 162 Animalia, 40 Fungi, 24 Plantae, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. R. Gaufin, A.R. Gaufin, A.R. Gaufin, H.H. Ross 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
Sorghum Moench	1897	Kellerman, W.A.	Shelby Co., Ohio.
Dryopteris goldiana (Hook. ex Goldie) A.Gray	1898	Wetzstein, A.	Rich woods, New Bremen.
Dryopteris spinulosa (O.F.Müll.) Watt	1898	Wetzstein, A.	Rich woods. Minster, Ohio
unnamed	1897	WA Kellerman	Shelby County
Carex shortiana Dewey & Torr.	1897	Wetzstein, A.
Cercosporina apii (Fresen.) Miura	1897	Selby A. D.	Kirkwood
Sorosporium reilianum (J.G.Kühn) McAlpine	1897	W. A. Kellerman
Sphacelotheca reiliana (J.G.Kühn) G.P.Clinton	1897	Kellerman W. A.	Shelby Co.
Ustilago reiliana J.G.Kühn	1897	Kellerman, W.A.	Shelby County, Ohio.
Diphasiastrum digitatum (Dill. ex A.Braun) Holub	1902	Grover, F.O.	Opens woods, N. Amherst, near F & D Quarry
Accipiter cooperii (Bonaparte, 1828)	1904	Henninger, W. F. (Walther Frederick)	New Bremen, Shelby, Ohio, USA
Ameiurus natalis (Lesueur, 1819)	1905	Clark, C. F. (Clarence F.)	Loramie Creek, Sec 30 of Cynthian township, ~0.3 mi SW of Newport, Cynthian township

All 227 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 Oran: 2 past producers, 1 plant, 1 producer. 2 still produce. 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.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Ernest Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Ernst Gravel Co. Plant & Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Plant
Morelock Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Norelock Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Shelby County

Storms near this place

1 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oran in 1 storm report between 2015 and 2015: 1 flash flood. 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 2015	Flash Flood	Oran	$30,000	A road was washed out in the 5000 block of Cardo Road.

Every storm recorded in Shelby 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
Dawson	2.1 miles	14
Newport	2.6 miles	14
Houston	2.7 miles	14
Mount Jefferson	3.4 miles	15
Hardin	4.2 miles	15
Uno	4.7 miles	14
Fort Loramie	5.0 miles	14
Newbern	5.1 miles	15

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1065208. 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.