Bethesda

How Bethesda began

Bethesda grew through three names before settling on its present one. The railroad reached the site in 1852, establishing a station called Burr's Mills for sawmill operator Merrick S. Burr; in 1855 Burr laid out a proper village and named it Fairmount for its high, attractive location. When a storekeeper relocated his business into the new village, the post office moved with him but kept the name of a Bethesda Methodist church about two miles south, and Bethesda became the town's official name by the late 1800s; it incorporated in 1910. Just outside the village, Epworth Park has operated as a Methodist camp-meeting and Chautauqua site since 1878, its lakeside cottages and avenue now recognized as the Epworth Park Historic District.

Settled 1852 (as Burr's Mills), platted 1855 (as Fairmount), incorporated 1910, by Merrick S. Burr.

Where the name comes from

Named for a Bethesda Methodist church about two miles south of the village; when a store owner moved his business into the newly platted town (then called Fairmount), the post office relocated with him but kept the Bethesda name, which became the town's official name by the late 1800s.

Before the town

No Native village, camp, or trail specific to Bethesda was found in the sources consulted.

Timeline

1. 1852 — The Central Ohio Railroad reaches the site, establishing a station called Burr's Mills after sawmill operator Merrick S. Burr.
2. 1855 — Burr lays out a village on the site and names it Fairmount for its high, attractive location.
3. 1878 — Epworth Park, just outside the village, begins operating as a Methodist camp-meeting and Chautauqua site.
4. 1910 — Bethesda, by then the town's settled name, is formally incorporated as a village.
5. 1913 — A postcard photograph documents 'The Avenue' running through Epworth Park.
6. 1920 — The village installs a town clock, made by the E. Howard Watch & Clock Company and mounted atop the Orrison Cigar Co. building on Main Street, dedicated to Bethesda's World War I veterans.
7. 2009 — Epworth Park's cottages and grounds are added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Epworth Park Historic District.
8. 2010 — The 1920 town clock is removed from service.
9. 2017 — The restored clock is rededicated at the new Murray Family Memorial Plaza, honoring veterans of all services.

Stories

A camp meeting that never stopped

In 1878, Methodists began holding camp meetings on a lakeside tract just outside the young village then still known as Fairmount, part of the nationwide Chautauqua movement that combined religious revival with education, music, and rest. What started as a seasonal gathering of tents grew into a fixed settlement of its own: an avenue lined with cottages, a lake for boating and picnics, and enough permanent structures that, well over a century later, the whole grounds were recognized as the Epworth Park Historic District. Postcards from the 1910s show the avenue already well established, its cottages and shade trees drawing visitors year after year. The park has outlasted the name of the village it sits beside changing twice over, and continues to operate today much as it always has, a piece of nineteenth-century religious and recreational life still functioning in the twenty-first.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

A well in the Ohio River valley (alluvial) aquifer serving the St. Clairsville-area system The water here

• Bethesda Public Water System97% of residentsOhio River valley aquifer (wells)
• Morristown Public Water System3% of residentsOhio River valley aquifer (wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public libraries (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2018: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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