Catawba

How Catawba began

Catawba is a small village in northern Pleasant Township, Clark County. The 1881 county history says it was laid out in 1835-36 by Cass and Marsh (Wikipedia says 1838), and its post office was first called Buck Creek about 1833 and later Catawba. By 1881 it had several stores, two churches, a graded school and four physicians. Wikipedia says the town was named for the Catawba people, whose homeland is in the Carolinas; no Catawba presence in Ohio is recorded. The 2020 census counted 245 residents.

Platted 1835-36, by Cass and Marsh.

Where the name comes from

Wikipedia says the town was named for the Catawba people. The Catawba Nation's homeland is in the Carolina Piedmont, and no Catawba presence in Ohio is recorded in the sources; who chose the name, and why, is not recorded.

Before the town

The name Catawba is borrowed from the Catawba Nation of the Carolina Piedmont; no Catawba presence on this land is recorded. No Native village, trail, camp, mound or other site is recorded in the sources for Pleasant Township, where Catawba sits. Clark County's Native history includes the Shawnee town of Piqua on the Mad River in Bethel Township.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Piqua (Peckuwe), Shawnee town and Battle of Piqua (battle) — Mad River, Bethel Township, Clark County, about 7 miles west of Springfield, Shawnee town from the 1750s-1770s; destroyed August 8, 1780 (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1824 — The first church in the township, Asbury Methodist, is built and named for the bishop; Mount Vernon church follows in 1825, and the first Sabbath school is organized at Asbury; Moses Henkle starts one at Vernon in 1828.
2. 1831 — Joseph Newlove opens the first store in a small room at Catawba about this year, soon selling to Herriman Chamberlain; Henry Neer builds the first house.
3. 1833 — A post office is established through the influence of Congressman Joseph Vance, with Chamberlain as postmaster; the name proposed, Newburg, being taken, it is called Buck Creek.
4. 1836 — The village of Catawba is laid out in 1835-36 by Cass and Marsh on land that had belonged to Israel Marsh and George Dawson, in northern Pleasant Township (Wikipedia gives 1838).
5. 1838 — The first tavern opens at the corner of Champaign and Pleasant streets; Henry Runyan, who bought Chamberlain's store, becomes postmaster and merchant.
6. 1839 — A post office named Catawba is in operation by this year, serving the village (it had been called Buck Creek when first established).
7. 1850 — Pleasant Township, whose only village is Catawba, has 1,540 people; the township's population is 1,553 in 1870, 1,585 in 1880, 1,597 in 1890 and 1,437 in 1900.
8. 1881 — Catawba has several stores, two churches, a graded school and four physicians; township notables include Sheriff William Saylor and Hon. N. M. McConkey, county commissioner and state legislator.
9. 1908 — William M. Rockel's county history illustrates a hotel, a Methodist Episcopal church, a Methodist Protestant church, and a town hall in Catawba.
10. 1960 — Catawba records its historical population peak, 355 residents.
11. 2020 — The U.S. Census records Catawba's population at 245.

Stories

Mastodon remains in the Buck Creek valley

The 1908 county history records that mastodon remains were found in the valley of Buck Creek 'not far from Catawba Station,' and separately that prehistoric animal bones turned up on a farm in the southeastern part of Pleasant Township. The history does not connect the bones to any human presence.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · catawba.com · encyclopedia.com · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org

Groundwater wells (2 wells) The water here

• Catawba Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

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, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-11-12

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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