Centerburg

How Centerburg began

Centerburg was surveyed in October 1830 by Edson Harkness and platted by Stephen Sutton and Jacob Houck, the landowners, at what was reckoned to be both the geographic center of Hilliar Township and close to the geographic center of Ohio, which gave the village its name (originally spelled Centreburgh); the plat was formally recorded December 22, 1834. It grew up as a stage-road stop on the route between Columbus and Mount Vernon, a way station where rival stage lines raced to be first to Harvey Jones's tavern, the settlement's first building, house, and store. Hilliar Township itself was organized in 1818 out of Miller Township and named for Dr. Richard Hilliar, an English-born physician and original landowner whose grave, by his own deathbed request, was left deliberately unmarked in the woods. A post office opened under Harvey Jones's postmastership, and the village has remained Hilliar Township's only real commercial center, its population passing 1,700 by 2010 before easing back slightly in the 2020 census.

Settled 1806 (Dr. Richard Hilliar, first settler in what became Hilliar Township), platted 1830-10 (surveyed by Edson Harkness); plat recorded 1834-12-22 (Stephen Sutton and Jacob Houck), incorporated 1877 (made an independent district with control of its own streets and highways, short of full municipal incorporation), by Stephen Sutton and Jacob Houck (landowners); surveyed by Edson Harkness.

Where the name comes from

Centerburg (originally spelled Centreburgh) was named because it sat at the center of Hilliar Township and was supposed to be near the center of the state of Ohio. The 'h' at the end of the older spelling was dropped sometime after 1893. Hilliar Township itself, in which Centerburg sits, was named for Dr. Richard Hilliar, an English-born physician who bought 1,800 acres of military land and settled there in 1806.

Before the town

No source found records a Native village, mound, or specific encounter directly on the site of Centerburg itself. The 1881 county history for Hilliar Township records that only two small Mound Builder mounds (on the property of Edward Roberts) and one more (on Mrs. Thurston's property) were known in the township, none tied to Centerburg's own site. It also records that early Hilliar Township settlers lived in dread of Native attack as tensions built toward the War of 1812, never leaving their cabins without a rifle in hand, though no actual attack occurred in the township; after the war, Native people in the area departed and did not return. Knox County was Wyandot, Shawnee, and Delaware (Lenape) territory before cession and removal.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware).

Timeline

1. 1806 — Dr. Richard Hilliar, an English-born physician who had bought 1,800 acres of military land, builds a cabin in what becomes the southwest corner of Hilliar Township, the area's first settler.
2. 1811 — Dr. Richard Hilliar dies in September and, by his own deathbed instruction, is buried on his own property in an unmarked grave near a cherry tree southwest of the Sunbury road forks.
3. 1818 — Hilliar Township is organized August 28 out of territory formerly part of Miller Township, named for Dr. Richard Hilliar.
4. 1830 — Centerburg (Centreburgh) is surveyed in October by Edson Harkness for landowners Stephen Sutton and Jacob Houck, at the center of Hilliar Township; Harvey Jones builds the first house and opens the first tavern.
5. 1834 — The village plat is formally filed, on December 22.
6. 1835 — Harvey Jones opens the village's first dry goods store; a post office follows with Jones as first postmaster.
7. 1840 — The Centreburgh Methodist Episcopal church and the Centerburgh Cumberland Presbyterian church are both established in the village.
8. 1851 — The Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark Railroad's completion diverts mail and stagecoach travel away from Centerburg, ending its heyday as a stage-road stop.
9. 1874 — The Cleveland, Mt. Vernon & Delaware Railroad is completed through Centerburg on September 1, sparking a revival; town lots that sold for $20 in 1860 are worth $200 by 1881.
10. 1877 — Centerburg is made an independent district, giving it control of its own streets and highways, though it is never fully incorporated with municipal powers.
11. 1880 — The village records a population of 400 and about 100 dwellings.
12. 1893 — Around this year the older spelling 'Centreburgh' begins to give way to the modern 'Centerburg.'
13. 1900 — Population reaches 706.
14. 2010 — Census records the village's peak population at 1,773.
15. 2020 — Census records 1,690 residents, a 4.7% decrease from 2010.

Stories

A way station at the middle of everything

Centerburg's location was its whole reason for being: laid out at what surveyors reckoned to be the center of Hilliar Township and near the center of the state itself, the village sat directly on the stage road linking Columbus and Mount Vernon. Rival stage lines competed fiercely for the mail subsidy that came with speed and passenger volume, cutting fares to almost nothing and racing to be first to rein up at Harvey Jones's tavern -- the 1881 county history notes that 'the life of a horse was lightly esteemed' in the competition. That golden age ended in 1851 when the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark Railroad diverted travel elsewhere, but Centerburg revived after 1874 when a new rail line finally reached the village directly, and even after the spelling simplified from Centreburgh to Centerburg late in the 19th century, the village kept trading on its central position, still marketing itself today as the 'Heart of Ohio.'

The doctor who asked to be forgotten

Dr. Richard Hilliar, the English-born physician for whom Hilliar Township is named, settled alone in a pole house in 1806 after buying 1,800 acres of military land, clearing seven acres with hired help before the township had another settler for miles. According to pioneer James Houck, who knew him personally, Hilliar was affected with consumption and dropsy for years but boasted that he had 'lived eighteen years in spite of death.' Before he died in 1811, Hilliar broke down brush near a cherry tree in the woods southwest of the Sunbury road forks and directed that he be buried there with no marker and no epitaph -- he wanted, in his own words, no man to ever say 'here lies old doctor Hilliar.' His wishes were honored, and as the 1881 county history put it, 'no man knoweth of his grave to this day,' even as the township that carries his name grew into farmland and villages around him.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · knoxhistory.org · archive.org

Del-Co's East Knox wellfield at Bryant and Lucerne Rds, Wayne Twp, about 5 miles WSW of Fredericktown The water here

• Del-co Water Company, Inc.100% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells

Nursing homes (1)

Public schools (3)

Public libraries (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 1 of 2 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 0 of 1.

Ballot issues

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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-09-16

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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