Lore City

How Lore City began

Lore City grew up around a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad stop in Guernsey County's coalfield and was not platted until June 8, 1903, nearly three decades after a post office had already opened there in 1876. It was incorporated in 1906 and, in the years around 1900-1920, was surrounded by working shaft mines -- Black Top and King's Mine among them -- that drove the village's early growth from 609 residents in 1910 to a peak of 784 in 1920. As the mines played out through the 1920s the population declined steadily, standing at 282 by the 2020 census. No source consulted explains the origin of the name "Lore City" itself.

Platted June 8, 1903, incorporated 1906.

Where the name comes from

No source consulted gives the origin of the name "Lore City." A post office under this name was operating by 1876, well before the town was platted in 1903, suggesting the name predates the formal village and may derive from a local family or postal designation not identified in the sources checked.

Before the town

No Native American village, camp, or site specific to the Lore City area was found in the sources checked. The general county-wide record -- Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware) and Mingo peoples using the Wills Creek watershed as hunting ground rather than permanent towns -- applies to this part of the county as it does elsewhere. Camps and villages are recorded in other townships of the county.

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

Timeline

1. 1876 — A post office named Lore City began operating at the site, years before the town around it was formally platted.
2. 1900 — The Black Top mine, a 100-foot shaft mine on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad near Lore City, was opened by the Monarch Coal Company.
3. 1903-06-08 — Lore City was platted, formally laying out the town as lots for the first time.
4. 1905 — The Morris Coal Company took over operation of the Black Top mine near Lore City.
5. 1906 — Lore City was incorporated as a village.
6. 1908 — A fire destroyed the surface structures at King's Mine, two miles west of Lore City; the mine then stood filled with water for seven years.
7. 1910 — Lore City's population reached 609.
8. 1915 — King's Mine, near Lore City, was leased to the Akron Coal Company and reopened after standing flooded since the 1908 fire.
9. 1920 — Lore City's population peaked at 784, a 28.7 percent increase over 1910, reflecting the coal boom in the surrounding mines.
10. 1927 — Mining ceased at King's Mine near Lore City when the coal seam was exhausted.

Stories

Named for a miner: Joe King's mine

Two miles west of Lore City, the Morris Coal Company worked a shaft that came to be called King's Mine, after Joe King, a Black miner employed there by the Robins brothers. According to the account preserved by local historian Betty Shinn, the mine hit a difficult geological formation that discouraged the operators from continuing, and it was King who persuaded them to keep working the seam. The mine went on to have a hard run: a 1908 fire destroyed its surface buildings and left the shaft flooded for seven years before the Akron Coal Company leased and reopened it in 1915, working it until the coal gave out in 1927. The name stuck to the mine, and to the hillside, long after the equipment was gone.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · bettyshinn.com · bettyshinn.com · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Byesville100% of residentslocal wells (mine-pool/groundwater under influence of surface water)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 6 of 6 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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-08-20
• Financial Audit, 2021 to 2022, released 2025-11-06

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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