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

West Elkton, Ohio

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1911 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Gratis Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45070. The Survey maps it on the West Elkton quadrangle. 164 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,030 feet above sea level.

West Elkton within Preble County

Population over time

2 figures

West Elkton fell from 197 to 164 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	197
2020	164	-33 (-17%)

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 West Elkton, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of West Elkton, surveyed 1911

Compare 1911 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 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

6,783 words on this township

History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, published 1915 names this settlement in its chapter on Gratis Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

During the years 1803, 1804 and 1805, over fifty families from the Carolinas and Georgia settled in southern Preble and northern Butler counties, the central point being around West Elkton, and of the number nearly all were Quakers and all acquired land. Some of them later became possessed of hundreds of acres, many farms yet being owned by descendants of the early owners. We will name a few and, so far as known, their location: Samuel Stubbs, from Georgia, settled in section 29. His grandson, S. N. Stubbs, still owns most of the farm. With Samuel came eleven brothers, it is claimed, who all settled in the township in that neighborhood or on the land nearby in Butler, and nearly all reared large families. Daniel Chrisman, from North Carolina, settled in section 11. Richard Brown, from Georgia, settled in section 20. Jonas Randall, from South Carolina, settled east of West Elkton. Christian Fall and Benjamin Fall, his son, settled near Greenbush. John Riner, from Virginia, settled in the eastern part of the township. Francis Jones, from Georgia, settled near West Elkton. Jesse Kenworthy, from South Carolina, settled on section 32. William Gifford, from North Carolina, settled east of West Elkton. Nathan Maddock and Samuel Maddock, his father, from Georgia, headed a colony of some fifty people to the land of freedom ; they settled generally in southern Preble and northern Butler. Samuel Maddock settled in section 32. Thomas Stubbs settled near West Elkton. Joseph Stubbs and his son, John, settled on section 34. Jonathan Roberts, from North Carolina, settled just across the line in Butler county, but many of the families have since moved into this township. George Kelley, from Virginia, settled near the middle of the township. Simeon Loop, from Pennsylvania, settled in the western part of the township. All the above named are claimed to have come before the close of 1805.

Passage source: History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, published 1915.

William Hixon, from Georgia, came in 1806 and settled in section 9. Thomas Talbert came in 1807 and settled near West Elkton. Elijah Mendenhall, from Georgia, settled in 1806 in section 34. Martin Sayler, from Maryland, settled on section 3 in 1809. He was a millwright and helped build most of the mills for a number of years. William Clevenger, from New Jersey, settled on section 24 in 1806. Nathan Homaday, from North Carolina, settled in section 18 in 1806. Peter Prugh, from Maryland, settled on section 26 in 1813. A few years later than the above we find the names of Job Smith, John Thomas, Joseph Muilendore, Jacob Furrey, Abraham Flory, David Branson, Elias Mackey and Jonathan Homer, who appear as owning land in the township. Those early settlers nearly all left large families and their names are still prominent in the community. Race suicide was unknown in that generation.

Passage source: History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, published 1915.

About 1848 the Congregationalists built a church at Greenbush, but the membership was not strong enough to support it, and some ten years later they sold out to the Methodists and United Brethren, who, for many years previous, had maintained organizations, and they continued to use it together until some twenty years since. Then the Methodists sold their interest to the United Brethren, which is now the only church in the place, numbering about fifty members. The pastor, Charles Snyder, serves both the church here and at West Elkton. It is said that the Sunday school numbers a great many more than the church, which predicts a bright future foe the church.

Passage source: History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, published 1915.

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 Gratis Township - it names this place 11 more 11 times.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 298 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 298 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Elkton between 1877 and 1975: 133 Fungi, 114 Animalia, 50 Plantae, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, Arden R. Gaufin, Ball, H. 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
Fagus grandifolia Ehrh.	1877	Matthes,B.	USA, Ohio, Hamilton County, Camden
Fomes conchatus (Pers.) Gillet	1917	Overholts	West Elkton; Base of maple
Omphalia campanella (Batsch) P.Kumm.	1917	?	West Elkton
Ramularia armoraciae Fuckel	1890	Elliott E. N.	Morning Sun
Bryum pseudotriquetrum (Hedw.) G.Gaertn., B.Mey. & Scherb.	1909	Braun, E. Lucy	Hueston Woods, east of Talawanda Creek
Campylium hispidulum (Brid.) Mitt.	1909	Braun, E. Lucy	Hueston Woods
Dicranum scoparium Hedw.	1909	Braun, E. Lucy	Hueston Woods
Fissidens adianthoides Hedw.	1909	Braun, E. Lucy	Hueston Woods
Leucodon julaceus (Hedw.) Sull.	1909	Braun, E. Lucy	Hueston Woods
Mnium stellare Hedw.	1909	Braun, E. Lucy	Hueston Woods
Platygyrium repens (Brid.) Schimp.	1909	Braun, E. Lucy	Hueston Woods
Ramalina calicaris (L.) Fr.	1909	Braun, E. Lucy	Hueston Woods State Park

All 298 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this place

7 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Elkton in 7 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 6 thunderstorm wind, 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 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	West Elkton	$20,000	Over 15 trees were downed along Greenbush and West Elkton Gifford Roads. Several power lines were also downed.
March 2020	Flash Flood	West Elkton	$10,000	An unoccupied car was swept from the road.
April 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	West Elkton	$5,000	Numerous trees up to four inches in diameter were knocked down. A grain bin was also heavily damaged.
February 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	West Elkton	$3,000	A few trees were downed.
July 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	West Elkton	$3,000	A few trees were downed.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	West Elkton	$2,000	Two trees and a few large limbs were downed along West Elkton-Gifford Road.
March 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	West Elkton	$1,000	A tree was downed.

Every storm recorded in Preble 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
Beechwood	2.4 miles	9
Greenbush	3.1 miles	12
Gratis	4.4 miles	10
Camden	5.7 miles	11
Quail Trail	6.1 miles	11
Wheatville	7.0 miles	10
Enterprise	8.1 miles	10
Fosterville	8.3 miles	11

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 West Elkton	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2674168	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 1049309. 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.