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

Russia, Ohio

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1911 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Loramie Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45363. The Survey maps it on the Versailles quadrangle. 712 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 968 feet above sea level.

Russia within Shelby County

Population over time

2 figures

Russia grew from 640 to 712 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	640
2020	712	+72 (+11%)

Then and now

1911 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 75 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Russia, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Russia, surveyed 1911

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 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

20,902 words on this township

History of Shelby County, Ohio, published 1883 names this settlement in its chapter on Loramie Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The surface for the most part is level, and the west side is even low and flat. The soil is rich, and yields abundantly of tiie cereals and grasses. The villages are small, and consist of Houston, North Houston, Mt. Jefferson, and Russia. The settlement is old and the community wealthy.

Passage source: History of Shelby County, Ohio, published 1883.

This branch of the Piqua M. E. Church was organized at the house of Thomas Wyatt in 1825, by Rev. Levi White and John Woodney, the latter being the leader of the Piqua church. The membership consisted of Thomas Wyatt, Mary Wyatt, William Johnston, Mary Johnston, George Black, Margaret Black, Henry Harp, Sarah Harp, Anthony Harp, Margaret Harp, Abner Wyatt, Richard Stone and wife, Andrew Livingood, Benjamin Carson and wife, and Ephraim Martin $nd wife. Abner Wyatt was first class-leader. The meetings were first held at the houses of Thomas Wyatt, Henry Harp, and Richard Stone. In 1832 a hewed log house was erected, 30x28 feet in dimensions. It was built on the east half of the northwest quarter of section It, and was dedicated in December, 1836, by Rev. James Findley. Joseph Wyatt, William Johnston, and another member, whose name cannot be recalled, were chosen trustees. The early ministers were Revs. Levi White, A. Bowcher, Gaddis, A. Brown, Maley, William Raper, D. D.

Passage source: History of Shelby County, Ohio, published 1883.

The Russia steam saw-mill was erected in 1867, by John A. Marchal, Michael Mehnm, and John B. Marchal, and was operated by this firm until 1868, when Meham sold bis interest to Frank Simon. The firm style then became Marchal and Simon, under which style the business is still conducted. The main building is forty by thirty feet, two stories high with a shed fifty by twenty feet. The power is a twenty-foil r-horse engine, which gives a sawing capacity of about eight hundred feet per hour.

Passage source: History of Shelby County, Ohio, published 1883.

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 Loramie Township - it names this place 4 more 4 times.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 92 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 92 specimens collected within 10 miles of Russia between 1905 and 1967: 64 Animalia, 19 Fungi, 9 Plantae. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. R. Gaufin, A.R. Gaufin, H.H. Ross, Arden R. Gaufin 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
Aleurodiscus macrodens Coker	1922	F.O. Grover	Black Swamp, Russia Twp.
Armillaria mellea var. bulbosa Barla	1922	F.O. Grover	Black Swamp, Russia Twp.
Corticium Pers., 1794	1922	F. O. Grover	Black Swamp, Russia Township.
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
Campostoma anomalum anomalum	1905	Clark, C. F. (Clarence F.)	Loramie Creek, Sec 30 of Cynthian township, ~0.3 mi SW of Newport, Cynthian township
Etheostoma caeruleum Storer, 1845	1905	Clark, C. F. (Clarence F.)	Loramie Creek, Sec 30 of Cynthian township, ~0.3 mi SW of Newport, Cynthian township
Etheostoma flabellare Rafinesque, 1819	1905	Clark, C. F. (Clarence F.)	Loramie Creek, Sec 30 of Cynthian township, ~0.3 mi SW of Newport, Cynthian township
Etheostoma nigrum Rafinesque, 1820	1905	Clark, C. F. (Clarence F.)	Loramie Creek, Sec 30 of Cynthian township, ~0.3 mi SW of Newport, Cynthian township
Hyborhynchus notatus (Rafinesque, 1820)	1905	Clark, C. F. (Clarence F.)	Loramie Creek, Sec 30 of Cynthian township, ~0.3 mi SW of Newport, Cynthian township
Lepomis humilis (Girard, 1858)	1905	Clark, C. F. (Clarence F.)	Loramie Creek, Sec 30 of Cynthian township, ~0.3 mi SW of Newport, Cynthian township
Nocomis micropogon (Cope, 1865)	1905	Clark, C. F. (Clarence F.)	Loramie Creek, Sec 30 of Cynthian township, ~0.3 mi SW of Newport, Cynthian township
Notropis deliciosus (Girard, 1856)	1905	Clark, C. F. (Clarence F.)	Loramie Creek, Sec 30 of Cynthian township, ~0.3 mi SW of Newport, Cynthian township

All 92 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this place

10 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Russia in 10 storm reports between 2002 and 2022: 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 flood, 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
March 2022	Tornado (EF0)	Russia	$100,000	Although there were some very minor signs of damage on Studer Road, the first notable damage associated with this tornado occurred at a property on the east side of Marshall Road, where one tree was damaged and part of a barn roof was removed. On the west side of Darke Shelby Road, a house had a loss of some shingles and gutters, with at least a dozen trees damaged or uprooted. On the east side of this road, another home had some minor roof damage and a few trees were downed. A barn just north of this home was leveled, with sheet metal from the barn thrown downstream over a tenth of a mile.\|\|At a property on the west side of Simon Road, several structures were damaged and parts of two barn roofs were removed. Another barn was partially collapsed. On Miller Road, one house had a large number of shingles removed. Across Miller Road to the east, a large concrete silo was downed into a barn. Some tree damage was noted in a stand of trees east of Miller Road and south of Redmond Road.\|\|The last visible damage occurred at a property north of Redmond Road, just west of Walzer Road. A barn at this property had a portion of the roof removed from the north facing section of the roof. At least two windows were blown out from the west side of another building at this property. No additional damage was observed east of Walzer Road.
August 2002	Lightning	Russia	$100,000	A house along State Route 48 near the Shelby-Miami county line was set on fire by a lightning strike. Firefighters from surrounding villages responded to the blaze, which took nearly two hours to extinguish. The five year old home was completely destroyed. There were no injuries, as the homeowners were out of town at the time of the fire.
October 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Russia	$5,000	Multiple trees were downed near the town of Russia due to thunderstorm winds.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Russia	$3,000	One large tree and several other small trees were downed due to thunderstorm winds.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Russia	$3,000	Large trees were blown down across the southwest part of the county.
April 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Russia	$2,000	Power lines were downed from the thunderstorm winds.
June 2013	Flash Flood	Russia	$1,000	High water was crossing several roads in the Russia and Houston Areas due to heavy rainfall.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Russia	$1,000	Large branches were downed due to thunderstorm winds.
June 2006	Flood	Russia	-	Roads were flooded. Several homes had water in their basements.
June 2021	Hail	Russia	-	no account filed

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
Mount Jefferson	4.1 miles	15
Houston	4.1 miles	14
Newport	4.7 miles	14
Dawson	5.1 miles	14
Oran	6.1 miles	14
Fort Loramie	8.3 miles	14
Newbern	9.0 miles	15
Lockington	9.5 miles	16

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 Russia	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2477732	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 1049142. 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.