Enon

• The Adena, Ohio's first mound buildersOhio's Adena culture raised the state's first burial mounds around 800 BC. It is named for Thomas Worthington's Chillicothe estate.

How Enon began

Enon is the principal village of Mad River Township, on the old Springfield and Dayton Turnpike about seven and a half miles southwest of Springfield. Ezra Baker and Elnathan Corey platted the village on May 19, 1838, and it incorporated on March 15, 1850. Its name, from the biblical place where John baptized 'because there was much water there,' echoes the springs that give the surrounding area its water. Long before any of that, the ground had been the burial place of the Adena culture, who raised what is now the second-largest conical mound in Ohio at the village's center, and the site of Old Piqua, the principal Shawnee town of the region until George Rogers Clark's Kentucky militia destroyed it in the Battle of Piqua on August 8, 1780 — a battle fought on ground just north of the village, not to be confused with the present-day city of Piqua in Miami County, which the displaced Shawnee founded afterward.

Settled pre-1798, platted 1838-05-19, incorporated 1850-03-15, by Ezra Baker and Elnathan Corey.

Where the name comes from

Two closely related explanations appear in the sources. The village government's own history says the name Enon means 'an abundance of springs.' Wikipedia traces it to Aenon, the place named in the Gospel of John (3:23) where John the Baptist baptized people 'because there was much water there' — the same idea of abundant springs, filtered through the biblical place name. Both point to the same underlying fact: the area was known for its springs.

Before the town

Enon's ground carries a deep and well-documented Native history. The Adena culture (roughly 800 BC to AD 100) built a large conical burial mound at the center of what is now the village — at 40 feet high and over an acre at its base, the second-largest conical mound in Ohio, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Local accounts describe boys digging into the mound in the 1870s-1880s and finding a stone-lined chamber; a depression on the mound's northwest side is said to mark that disturbance. After the Adena, the Hopewell culture (roughly 100 BC to AD 500) also used the area, evidenced by excavations at the nearby Campbell mounds. By the eighteenth century, the Shawnee held the principal town of the region here: Piqua, also spelled Peckuwe or Pekowi, home to both the Peckuwe and Kispoko divisions of the Shawnee nation, sited on a bluff above the Mad River a short distance from where Enon village now stands. On August 8, 1780, General George Rogers Clark led about 970 Kentucky County militia — responding to a Shawnee, Lenape, and Miami raid into Kentucky earlier that summer — north from the Ohio River, having already burned the abandoned town of Old Chillicothe, to attack Piqua. Clark's men reportedly used the Adena mound as a lookout point during the fighting; the Shawnee, under Chief Black Hoof with Lenape, Wyandot, and Mingo allies, were driven off after a hard fight, and Clark's militia spent two days afterward burning the town and roughly 500 acres of surrounding cornfields. The Shawnee did not rebuild on the site; they resettled to the north near the Great Miami River at what became the city of Piqua, Ohio, in Miami County — a different place from this Clark County site, though the two are often confused. The Piqua Sept of the Ohio Shawnee Tribe has since placed a cedar pole at George Rogers Clark Memorial Park, near the site, to commemorate their history there. First white settlers arrived in what became Mad River Township before 1798, after the land had already passed out of Native hands under the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Wyandot, Lenape (Delaware), Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga), Adena culture, Hopewell culture.

• Enon Mound (Adena Mound) (mound) — Mound Circle, center of Enon village, Adena culture, roughly 800 BC to AD 100 (en.wikipedia.org)
• Campbell mounds (mound) — near Enon, Mad River Township, Hopewell culture, roughly 100 BC to AD 500 (enon-oh.gov)
• Old Piqua (Peckuwe / Pekowi) (village) — on the Mad River near present-day Enon, marked today by George Rogers Clark Memorial Park, Shawnee town, destroyed 1780 (en.wikipedia.org)
• Battle of Piqua / Pickaway Settlements Battlesite (battle) — north of Enon, Bethel Township, Clark County, August 8, 1780 (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1780-08-08 — General George Rogers Clark's Kentucky militia destroys the Shawnee town of Piqua on the Mad River, near what becomes Enon; the Shawnee resettle north near the Great Miami River, founding present-day Piqua, Ohio.
2. pre-1798 — The first white settlers arrive in Mad River Township, on ground previously occupied in turn by the Adena and the Hopewell, next to the Shawnee town of Old Piqua just north of Enon.
3. 1838-05-19 — Ezra Baker and Elnathan Corey plat the site of Enon.
4. 1838-06-18 — The initial 60 platted lots are approved.
5. 1850-03-15 — The village of Enon is incorporated.
6. 1870s-1880s — Local youths reportedly dig into the Adena mound and uncover a stone-lined chamber, leaving a visible depression on the mound's northwest side.
7. 1972-02-23 — The Enon Mound is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
8. 1952-1953 — Charles Beaver purchases the mound property, develops the surrounding Indian Mound Estates, and in 1953 deeds the mound itself to the village of Enon.

Stories

The Mound at the Center of Town

Long before Enon existed as a platted village, the Adena people raised a conical burial mound on this ground — today measured at about 40 feet high, more than an acre at its base, and the second-largest conical mound anywhere in Ohio. Nineteenth-century residents told of local boys digging into it sometime in the 1870s or 1880s and finding a small room built of stone at its base; the depression still visible on the mound's northwest side is said to date from that dig. In 1952 a developer named Charles Beaver bought the property to build the Indian Mound Estates subdivision around it, then deeded the mound itself to the village the following year rather than disturb it further. It still stands today, fenced inside Mound Circle, the most recognizable landmark in Enon.

The Battle That Emptied Old Piqua

Seven miles west of Springfield, on a bluff above the Mad River, stood Piqua — known to the Shawnee as Peckuwe or Pekowi, home to two of the five Shawnee divisions and, by some estimates, home to roughly 3,000 people. In August 1780, after Shawnee, Lenape, and Miami warriors had raided deep into Kentucky, General George Rogers Clark led nearly a thousand Kentucky militiamen north in response. Clark's men first burned the abandoned town of Old Chillicothe, then marched on Piqua itself on August 8. Chief Black Hoof and his Shawnee warriors, joined by Lenape, Wyandot, and Mingo allies, fought hard from a stockade, but Clark's men bombarded it with artillery from the river bluffs above, and after two days the town and some 500 acres of surrounding cornfields lay in ashes. The Shawnee never rebuilt on the site; they moved north to the Great Miami River and founded a new town they also called Piqua, which grew into today's city of that name in Miami County — a place easily confused with, but historically distinct from, this Clark County site. Local tradition holds that Clark's men climbed the nearby Adena mound to scout the Shawnee positions before the attack.

Photographs

Local history sources: enon-oh.gov · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · theclio.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Groundwater wells (4 wells) The water here

• Enon Village54% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Clark County Green Meadows 246% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

Public libraries (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Public EV charging (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-10-07

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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