Butlerville

How Butlerville began

Butlerville is a small village in central Harlan Township, Warren County, Ohio, platted in 1838 along a new turnpike being built between Goshen, Wilmington and Columbus. It was named for its founder, Abram B. Butler, who added to the plat twice more in 1839 and 1841; a further addition called "Texas" was platted south of it in 1844 by J. W. Doughman. The village incorporated in 1851 and by the 1880s supported a hotel, general stores, a tannery, a carriage and wagon works, and two successive Methodist Episcopal churches, the second of which (built 1857) still stands. It remains a very small residential village today, population 137 to 155 depending on the count, sitting within the historic Western Water Company service area.

Platted 1838, incorporated 1851, by Abram B. Butler.

Where the name comes from

Butlerville was named for its founder and original proprietor, Abram B. Butler, who platted the town on April 20, 1838 along the route of the Goshen, Wilmington and Columbus Turnpike as it was being built, then added to it on September 8, 1839 and May 17, 1841.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, mound, or documented encounter specific to Butlerville itself was found in the sources searched (Beers' 1882 county history, GNIS, Wikipedia, Ohio History Central). General county- and region-level context: Warren County holds major Hopewell-era (about 100 BC to AD 500) earthworks on the Little Miami River, including Fort Ancient (Washington Township, about 11 km from Butlerville) and the Stubbs Earthworks near Morrow, part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage designation (2023). Centuries after the Hopewell builders, a distinct later Fort Ancient culture (roughly AD 1000-1750) occupied village sites in the same Little Miami valley region, including within the old Hopewell embankments at the Fort Ancient site itself. In the historic period, the Ohio Country lands east of the Greenville Treaty Line -- which includes the Little Miami/Great Miami valley area where Warren County lies -- were ceded to the United States by a coalition of nations (Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape/Delaware, Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Miami, and others) under the Treaty of Greenville, signed August 3, 1795, opening the area to the surveying and settlement that produced Harlan Township and, later, Butlerville. No source found assigns a specific historic-period village, camp, or named site to Harlan Township or Butlerville itself.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Wyandot, Lenape (Delaware), Miami, Ottawa, Hopewell culture, Fort Ancient culture.

• Fort Ancient (earthwork) — Washington Township, Warren County, on the Little Miami River, about 11 km southeast of Butlerville, Hopewell culture (1st century BC - 6th century AD), later occupied by the separate Fort Ancient culture (c. AD 1000-1750) (en.wikipedia.org)
• Stubbs Earthworks (earthwork) — near Morrow, Warren County, at the confluence of the Little Miami River and Todd Fork/Bigfoot Run, Hopewell culture (100 BC - AD 500) (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1838 — Abram B. Butler platted Butlerville on April 20, along the new Goshen, Wilmington and Columbus Turnpike in Harlan Township, Warren County.
2. 1838 — A post office named "Rossburgh" was established in Harlan Township on December 7, with Jefferson Stevens as postmaster; it was renamed Butlerville ten days later, on December 17 (Wikipedia gives 1833 for the post office).
3. 1839 — Butler added to the original plat on September 8; a Methodist Episcopal frame church was also built on Back Street around this year.
4. 1841 — Butler made a further addition to the plat on May 17.
5. 1843 — Hiram St. John began a carriage and wagon manufacturing business in the village.
6. 1844 — J. W. Doughman platted an addition south of the village, named "Texas," on November 19.
7. 1847 — Henry Runyan established a plow and wagon factory in Butlerville in September.
8. 1851 — Butlerville incorporated as a village, the only incorporated village in Harlan Township; Sullivan F. Stevens was elected its first mayor on March 11.
9. 1857 — A brick Methodist Episcopal church was built on Main Street, replacing the 1839 frame church; it still stands as the Butlerville United Methodist Church.
10. 1873 — The village tannery, run successively by J. St. John, William Spence, and John Morsback, was abandoned this year.
11. 1905 — The Butlerville post office was discontinued on March 22; its records and papers were transferred to the post office at Blanchester, Clinton County, on April 15.

Stories

A turnpike town, twice named

Butlerville began less as a settlement that grew into a town than as a real-estate move timed to a road project: in 1838, as the Goshen, Wilmington and Columbus Turnpike was being pushed through Harlan Township, landowner Abram B. Butler platted 24 lots along its path and put his own name on them. He was not finished -- he filed two more additions to the plat within the next three years, in 1839 and 1841, and a neighbor, J. W. Doughman, tacked on a further section to the south in 1844 that he called "Texas," evidently after the republic much in the news that year. The village's post office tells the same story of a plan still being finalized: opened that same December of 1838, it briefly bore the name "Rossburgh" before being renamed Butlerville just ten days later, with Jefferson Stevens carrying the postmastership across the change. By 1851 the place had enough residents and enough confidence in itself to incorporate, with Sullivan F. Stevens elected its first mayor -- the only incorporated village Harlan Township would ever have.

Photographs

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

Ohio River intake at the plant's riverfront on Kellogg Ave in the California neighborhood, east Cincinnati The water here

• Western Water Company100% of residentsLittle Miami River valley wells (51%) plus Cincinnati Ohio River water (49%)

Elections for office

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

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-26

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