Built in 1810. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1983. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The historic Joseph Ijams House is located in the village of West Rushville Richland Township, Fairfield County Ohio at the intersection of Main and Broad streets. Built circa 1810, the house stands along the original Zane's Trace road constructed by Colonel Ebenezer Zane in 1797.”
Wikipedia article Joseph Ijams House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 29 National Register listings in Fairfield County · listed in 1983 · category: Building · built in 1810 · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Fairfield County.
National Register reference number.83001965- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Richland township, The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
The oldest citizens of Lancaster describe a typhoid epidemic that prevailed in the village in the fall of the year 1823. Its ravages are believed not to have been exceeded on the continent at any age, or by any visitation of epidemic disease, not even excepting the cholera. No'direct or remote cause could be assigned.
East and West Rushville, one mile apart, and on opposite sides of Rush Creek, are situated in the southern third of the township. Both these villages have churches and Sabbath- Schools, and their citizens are characterized for temperance and good morals. It is understood that a man by the name of Teal first owned the land upon which West town is built, and a Mr. Turner that where the East town is.
Among the first settlers, the names below are presented : William Wiseman, Theo. Turner, Stephenson and Ijams' families. Judge William McClung was also an early-comer. Judge McClung was a prominent public man, and died in West Rushville in 1876, at a very advanced age. Abram Geil, James Rowland, and Jesse Rowles, are likewise mentioned as among the pioneers in the township. Mordecai Stevens was an early settler and leading farmer; he lived and died on the land first entered by his father. William CouLson is remembered as a leading man of Rushville, both in trade and as an active and devoted Methodist. Patrick Owens is said to have sold the first goods in Richland; and Moses Plummerthe proprietor of the first mills on Rush Creek, between the two villages, in the year 1802, or about that time.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Ijams, Joseph, House between
2012 and 2020, burning about 11 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
2
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 1,478 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Ijams, Joseph, House between 1843 and
1975: 1,122 Animalia, 260 Fungi, 87 Plantae, 6 Protozoa, 2 Chromista, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by Asa Gray; W. S. Sullivant, Bales, B. R., Birch, W. 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
West Rushville, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 2010 and 2024: 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 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.
The tornado touched down on Fairfield Union Road where tree and roof damage occurred. Damage associated with the tornado continued to the east until near County Line Road where another house had siding and roof damage from the tornado. Along this path there was additional tree damage and damage to a barn. Based on the damage, wind speeds were estimated around 75 miles per hour.
Numerous trees were damaged by being twisted at the 5 foot level. The trees were reported to be about 12 inches thick. In addition, another house on the street had one tree knocked down.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
1,588 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
Neither plumbing nor a central heating system has ever been installed. _ archeology-historic . science _ agriculture _ economics - sculpture X architecture - social/ X 1800-1899 - exploration/settlement - - philosophy .theater - politics/government other (specify) c. 1810-20 The stonework, carved and fluted mantels, detailed door and window architraves West Rushville was located along Zane's Trace, which was authorized in 1797 to connect sible for the development of Zanesville and Lancaster, to the east and west of West Although it is a tiny, quiet community now, a late 19th century county history referred to early W. Rushville as a prosperous town with 175 inhabitants, its early success due to both travel and the tobacco trade.
Ohio, published in 1978, described this building as the "only known remaining early History of Fairfield County, Ohio Columbus: Ohio State Journal, 1883 1600-1699 1400-1499 1700-1799 1500-1599 commerce transportation Rushville. conservation education industry humanitarian engineering invention Period prehistoric music County. military Specific dates law art 8.
Statement of significance
(in one paragraph) _communications and panelled doors are evidence of fine early craftmanship in this area of Fairfield brick structure in West Rushville and stands out because of the quality of its construc- literature an important transportation route through Ohio and as the outstanding example of early location (Lot l)at the only intersection in town.It is the largest and earliest - archeology-prehistoric - community planning . religion Builder Architect tavern in Fairfield County, probably built around 1810." Judge William McClung, a Goslin, Charles. Crossroads and Fence Corners. Fairfield Heritage Assn., 1976 tion. landscape architecture see below 19th century architecture in West Rushville.This building occupies the most prominent 9.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 83001965, 14 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
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.
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.
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