Cloverdale

How Cloverdale began

Cloverdale was platted in 1877 as Evansville when the railroad reached the site, and took its present name -- likely from the nearby Clover Leaf Railroad junction -- upon incorporation in 1902. On November 17, 2013, an EF-2 tornado struck the village's southern end during a major regional outbreak, causing structural damage to homes and a local church.

Settled 1877 (as the unplatted settlement of Evansville), platted 1891 (as Cloverdale), incorporated 1902-04-11, by E. W. Dimmick, surveyor, for proprietors W. H. and E. M. Mozier, Tunis and Nora Truax, and Austin and Mary Combs.

Where the name comes from

A settlement called Evansville grew up here informally, without ever being platted, from the construction of the Clover Leaf railroad in 1877. When the site was formally surveyed and platted in 1891 by E. W. Dimmick for six proprietors, it was given the name Cloverdale and the Evansville name gradually disappeared; the village's first post office, established with the 1891 plat, was initially called Drucilla. Putnam County's 1915 history does not explain the choice of either Drucilla or Cloverdale; Wikipedia's guess that Cloverdale echoes the nearby Clover Leaf Railroad remains unconfirmed.

Before the town

No Native American site or village specific to Cloverdale was located in the sources checked.

Timeline

1. 1877 — A settlement called Evansville grows up at the site with the construction of the Clover Leaf railroad, but is never formally platted.
2. 1877 — Early settlers arrive: Pope Burbage opens the first saloon, George Price the first store, Hollis Hanson the first saw-mill, Nathan Dalton the first wagon and paint shop, and Austin Combs becomes first postmaster; Irvin Follis builds the first house and Joseph Gingrich the first hotel.
3. 1878 — The Toledo, Delphos & Indianapolis narrow-gauge line, later the Clover Leaf, is built through western Putnam County, changing to standard gauge in 1888.
4. 1891 — E. W. Dimmick surveys and plats the village for six proprietors; it is named Cloverdale and the Evansville name fades out. The Findlay, Fort Wayne & Western railroad is built through the town the same year.
5. about 1891 — The first post office at the new Cloverdale is called Drucilla; the older railroad settlement of 1877 had been known as Evansville and was never platted.
6. 1894 — The Findlay, Fort Wayne & Western railroad is completed from Findlay to Fort Wayne through Cloverdale, which stands at the junction of the two railroads.
7. 1902-04-11 — Cloverdale incorporates, with T. J. Ludwig as clerk and Austin Combs -- one of the original 1877 settlers -- as the village's first squire.
8. 1902-04-11 — Cloverdale's first officers are T. J. Ludwig, clerk, Anthony Holguve, treasurer and Peter Harris, marshal; Austin Combs is first squire and William Cunkwell first constable.
9. 1913 — A town hall is erected at a cost of three thousand dollars.
10. 2000 — The census counts 201 residents in Cloverdale.
11. 2010 — The census counts 168 residents in Cloverdale.
12. 2013-11-17 — An EF-2 tornado strikes Cloverdale's southern end during a major regional outbreak, causing minor to moderate structural damage, downed trees and power lines, and significant damage to a church and a residence.
13. 2020 — The census counts 170 residents in Cloverdale.

Stories

The 2013 Tornado

On November 17, 2013, a widespread tornado outbreak tore across the Midwest, and one of the many tracks it cut passed directly through the southern end of Cloverdale. The EF-2 twister -- strong enough to cause structural damage but short of the outbreak's most violent storms -- brought down trees and power lines through the village and struck a local church and a nearby residence hard enough to cause significant damage. For a village of barely two hundred people, an EF-2 tornado is not a minor local weather event but the kind of disaster that reorders a community's calendar for years afterward, the storm against which every later one gets measured.

A Railroad Camp Waits Fourteen Years to Become a Town

Cloverdale did not begin as a plat on a courthouse map but as a knot of businesses that grew up along the newly built Clover Leaf railroad in 1877, under the name Evansville. Pope Burbage opened a saloon, George Price a store, Hollis Hanson a saw-mill, and Nathan Dalton a wagon and paint shop, while Austin Combs served as the settlement's first postmaster and Irvin Follis put up the first house. For fourteen years nobody bothered to have the place formally surveyed. That changed in 1891, when a second railroad, the Findlay, Fort Wayne & Western, crossed the Clover Leaf at the site, and six proprietors had the surveyor E. W. Dimmick lay out an official plat, which they called Cloverdale. The old Evansville name faded out of use, and the settlement's post office, first registered under yet another name, Drucilla, eventually took the town's new name too. When Cloverdale incorporated in April 1902, Austin Combs, still living in the town he had helped start as its first postmaster a quarter-century earlier, became its first squire.

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

No water-system data is linked to Cloverdale's ZIP codes yet.

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 2 of 2 passed.

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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-02

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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