Leesburg

How Leesburg began

Leesburg was laid out in 1802, by a local newspaper history's account (the county histories date the plat to 1814), by Nathaniel Pope, John Walters, and John Howard on the fertile farmland of eastern Highland County, and named for Leesburg, Virginia, the region many of its settlers had left. Flouring and woolen mills built on nearby streams gave the young village its first commerce, and by the mid-1800s a small business district of general stores, blacksmith shops, and workshops had grown up around them. The arrival of the railroad and a depot in the 19th century tied Leesburg to wider markets, and agriculture has remained the base of its economy ever since. Today it is a village of about 1,300 people, still known locally as "the Friendly Village," that hosts an annual Leesburg Luminaria (started 1991) and summer festival.

Settled early 1800s, platted March 1814 (James Johnson), with New Leesburg added June 1821 (S. McClure, A. Chalfont, C. Lupton) per Thompson 1878; a local newspaper history says 1802, by Nathaniel Pope, John Walters, and John Howard.

Where the name comes from

A local newspaper history says the village was named for Leesburg, Virginia, reflecting where its settlers came from. Scott (1890) separately records that Lees Creek, on which the town stands, was named for General Charles Lee, whose military land warrants were located on its waters.

Before the town

No source found ties a named Native village, trail, mound, or documented encounter specifically to the ground that became Leesburg. The 1890 county history says only in general terms that treaties of 1784 and 1785 extinguished Native claims to the southern and eastern parts of the state; the land that became Leesburg passed to the United States at the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. The same history places named Indian towns on the waters of the Scioto to the east and references frontier movement through what became Marshall and Rainsboro elsewhere in the county, but it gives no site in or immediately around Leesburg itself. Elsewhere in Highland County, the Adena/Hopewell mound record includes Fort Hill, roughly 10 miles southeast of Hillsboro. Nathaniel Pope's party reached the site in 1799 or 1800 (Klise and Scott differ) along the old Indian trail from Oldtown on the North Fork of Paint Creek to old Chillicothe, and found Native neighbors camped in large numbers along Rattlesnake Creek, who visited the settlers almost daily and sometimes hunted with them; the 1902 county history tells of William Pope racing a Shawnee afoot after a bear.

Timeline

1. 1799 — Nathaniel Pope, who had been told he could pick land from General Massie's holdings, settles on Lees Creek where Leesburg now stands; Scott dates the move to spring 1800.
2. 1800 — Pope sows the first wheat known in Highland County on a few acres where the Leesburg brick school stands today.
3. 1802 — A local newspaper history says Leesburg was laid out in 1802 by Nathaniel Pope, John Walters and John Howard and named for Leesburg, Virginia; Klise (1902) names these three as the first settlers but dates the town's plat to 1814 (James Johnson), with a 'New Leesburg' addition in 1821.
4. 1803 — William Lupton buys Pope's farm and builds a saw-mill on Lees Creek; the Quakers' log meeting house, built in 1803-04, is later replaced by a brick church in Leesburg.
5. 1814-03 — James Johnson's plat of Leesburg is dated March 1814.
6. 1816 — A post office named Leesburgh opens; it takes the spelling Leesburg in 1893.
7. 1820 — Leesburg's population is recorded at 131.
8. 1821-06 — S. McClure, A. Chalfont and C. Lupton plat New Leesburg.
9. 1822 — David Swain starts a carding mill at Leesburg; it passes to William W. Hardy, who builds a woolen mill there in 1837.
10. 1824 — Fairfield Local Schools, which still serves Leesburg, is established.
11. 1832 — John C. Batton establishes a steam flouring mill at Leesburg.
12. 1840 — A Universalist church is built at Leesburg, with James and Samuel McClure among its founders.
13. 1848 — Senator Buel Beeson's store at Leesburg is burned, a crime the county history ascribes to opposition to the early anti-saloon movement.
14. 1854 — The railroad is opened from Greenfield through Leesburg to Blanchester, connecting to the Little Miami line for Cincinnati.
15. 1876 — The Leesburg Bank is established, in the nation's centennial year.
16. 1900 — The census counts 783 people in Leesburg.
17. 1901 — The Farmers and Merchants Bank of Leesburg is established.
18. 1910 — Leesburg's population reaches 828 in the 1910 census, a figure it holds near 840 through 1950 before rising to 1,314 in 2010.
19. 1991 — The Leesburg Lions Club starts the Leesburg Luminaria, a candlelit winter event that continues today.
20. 2010 — Leesburg reaches its census high of 1,314 residents.

Stories

Mills on the millrace

Leesburg's earliest economy ran on water power: flouring mills and woolen mills built along the streams near the village turned the corn, wheat, and oats of the surrounding farms and the wool of local flocks into flour and cloth that could be sold or traded. These mills became the first commercial centers of the community, drawing farm families into the village to do business and, over time, anchoring a small downtown of general stores, a blacksmith shop, and workshops by the mid-1800s. The pattern was typical of Highland County's early villages, which grew up wherever a millrace could be dug rather than along any single road or rail line.

The depot years

When the railroad reached Leesburg, the village built a depot that changed its relationship to the outside world: grain, livestock, and manufactured goods could now move to distant markets, and travelers could come the other way. The Srofe Building in the village later housed a changing run of businesses, including a bakery and a telephone exchange, evidence of a small town continuing to adapt through the early 20th century even as its population growth leveled off. The depot building itself survives and has been photographed for the local historical record.

The first wheat and the Shawnee bear hunt

Nathaniel Pope left Virginia in fall 1796 with a low-wheeled mountain cart, spent a winter at the falls of the Kanawha and settled for a year or two on the Ohio before learning he could not buy the land. In 1799 (Scott says 1800) he came up Paint Creek to Lees Creek, cleared ground on the bottom and sowed what both county histories call the first wheat in what is now Highland County. John Walters took the place across the creek and James Howard built a cabin on the hill where Leesburg stands. Their neighbors were Shawnee camped along Rattlesnake Creek, who came almost daily and were glad of a meal. One fall day the Popes were hunting a bear on Hardin's Creek when a Shawnee joined the chase on foot and William Pope took up his challenge to a race. Pope outran him to the creek, rested against a tree and shot the bear, which fell badly wounded and seized one of Pope's favorite dogs. Pope motioned the Shawnee to kill it with his tomahawk, but the man only said 'White man,' so Pope went in with tomahawk and knife and finished it. They divided the meat, the Shawnee left well pleased, and the two became the best of friends and hunted together often.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · leesburgtimes.org · leesburgtimes.org · archive.org · archive.org · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · postalhistory.com

Mostly private wells The water here

• Leesburg Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

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Public libraries (1)

Police stations (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Elections for office

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Auditor of State record

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• Financial Audit, 2024, released 2025-10-14
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-10-17

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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