Mcguffey

How Mcguffey began

McGuffey was laid out in 1890 and named for John McGuffey, who donated land for a railroad depot in exchange for naming rights and who, in the 1860s, made the area's first attempt to drain the vast Scioto Marsh. The reclaimed marshland became one of the nation's most productive onion-growing regions in the early 1900s, and in the summer of 1934 McGuffey was the center of one of the country's first agricultural labor strikes, when nearly 800 onion workers walked out over wages and conditions. The village was incorporated in 1896 and remains a small rail-era farming community.

Platted 1890, incorporated 1896, by laid out and named for John McGuffey, who donated depot land in exchange for naming rights.

Where the name comes from

The village was named for John McGuffey, a local landowner who in the 1860s made the first attempt to drain the Scioto Marsh, and who donated land for a railroad depot in exchange for having the town named after him.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, or treaty specific to the McGuffey site is recorded in the sources searched. The Scioto Marsh that the village grew up around, before it was drained for farmland in the late 1800s and early 1900s, would have been part of the wetlands and hunting grounds used by the Wyandot and Shawnee nations who lived in and traveled through Hardin County before the treaties and removals of the early 1800s; no source names a specific village or event tied to the marsh itself.

Timeline

1. 1860s — John McGuffey makes the first attempt to drain the Scioto Marsh, the wetland the future village would be built beside.
2. 1883 — A post office opens under the name McGuffey.
3. 1890 — The village is laid out and named for John McGuffey, who traded depot land for naming rights.
4. 1896 — McGuffey is formally incorporated as a village.
5. 1934-06-20 — Nearly 800 Scioto Marsh onion field workers, organized as American Federation of Labor local 19724, go on strike for higher wages and an eight-hour day.
6. 1934-08-25 — A bomb explodes at the McGuffey mayor's home during the strike.
7. 1934-08-28 — The strike ends after ten weeks; some smaller growers raise wages to 35 cents an hour, but most refuse and the union goes unrecognized.

Stories

The Great Onion Strike of 1934

By the early twentieth century the drained Scioto Marsh around McGuffey had become one of the country's premier onion-growing regions, and by the summer of 1934 close to 1,000 seasonal field hands -- many of them families who had come north from southeastern Kentucky -- were weeding, topping, and harvesting the crop for as little as 8 to 12 cents an hour in temperatures that reached 120 degrees near the ground, with no bathroom facilities and ten-hour days. On June 20, roughly 800 of them walked out under a newly chartered American Federation of Labor local, 19724, one of the country's first agricultural-worker unions, demanding 35 cents an hour and an eight-hour day. Growers hired 54 armed 'special deputies,' a court issued a sweeping anti-picketing injunction, National Guard troops shot two strikers on June 29, and vigilantes kidnapped and beat union president Okey Odell. A bomb went off at the McGuffey mayor's home on August 25. When the ten-week strike ended, some smaller growers raised wages to 35 cents an hour, but most held firm, working conditions went unchanged, and the union was never recognized -- though the walkout remains one of the earliest organized strikes by American farmworkers.

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

Groundwater wells (3 wells) The water here

• Mcguffey Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

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 2026-09-10

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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