Morrow

How Morrow began

Morrow was platted in 1844-45 in Salem Township, Warren County, where the Little Miami Railroad reached a grist mill on James Miranda's farm at the confluence of Todd's Fork and the Little Miami River, and it was named for Jeremiah Morrow, Ohio's ninth governor and the railroad's first (unpaid) president. The railroad, chartered in 1836 and running scheduled service from Cincinnati by August 1845, made Morrow a regional rail and stagecoach hub, and from 1853, under an agreement with the Columbus and Xenia Railroad, the two roads were operated as a single line from Cincinnati to the state capital. The village stayed a modest river and rail town through the twentieth century, growing from 459 residents in 1850 to a mid-century peak, and has grown sharply again in recent years (2,049 residents in 2020, up 72.5% from 2010). Its present water utility, the customer-owned Western Water Company founded in 1976, drew national attention in 2023-24 when a $7.5 million USDA loan to expand Morrow's treatment plant for PFAS removal was announced in the village.

Platted 1844-1845, by Little Miami Railroad Company, building to a grist mill on James Miranda's farm.

Where the name comes from

Named for Jeremiah Morrow (1771-1852), Ohio's ninth governor, who served without pay as the first president of the Little Miami Railroad Company from its 1836 incorporation until 1845, the year the line reached and the village that took his name was platted.

Before the town

No source found a Native American village, trail, mound, or documented encounter specifically inside present Morrow. As at Waynesville, the wider context is documented: Morrow sits on the Little Miami River at its confluence with Todd's Fork, a valley the Shawnee and Miami used for hunting and travel before the 1795 Treaty of Greenville ceded the area to the United States, and the same valley (Warren County) holds Fort Ancient, the large Hopewell-era hilltop earthwork near Lebanon - a regional landmark, not a Morrow-specific site.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Miami, Hopewell culture.

Timeline

1. 1795 — The Treaty of Greenville cedes the Little Miami valley, including the future site of Morrow, to the United States.
2. 1836-03-11 — The Little Miami Railroad is incorporated, with Jeremiah Morrow, former Ohio governor, serving as its first, unpaid president.
3. 1844 — Little Miami Railroad track reaches a grist mill on James Miranda's farm at the confluence of the Little Miami River and Todd's Fork, the site that becomes Morrow.
4. 1845 — The village is platted and named for Jeremiah Morrow; a post office opens the same year.
5. 1845-08 — The Little Miami Railroad begins scheduled service between Cincinnati and Xenia, passing through Morrow.
6. 1853 — On November 30, the Little Miami Railroad and the Columbus and Xenia Railroad agree to operate their roads as a single line between Cincinnati and Columbus through Morrow; the arrangement was dissolved in 1868 when the Little Miami leased the Columbus and Xenia for 99 years.
7. 1850 — Morrow's population is recorded at 459.
8. 1960 — Morrow's population peaks at 1,477 before a decades-long decline.
9. 1976 — Western Water Company is founded as a non-profit, customer-owned rural water system serving parts of Brown, Clermont, Clinton and Warren counties, including Morrow, financed by USDA Rural Development.
10. 2020 — The census records 2,049 Morrow residents, a 72.5% increase over 2010, reversing decades of decline.
11. 2023 — USDA Rural Development obligates a $7.5 million Water and Waste Disposal loan to expand the Morrow treatment plant for PFAS removal.
12. 2024-04-25 — USDA Rural Development's Ohio state director and Western Water Company officials mark the loan in Morrow; the plant expansion, serving about 50,000 rural residents in southwest Ohio, is scheduled to run 2025-2026.

Stories

A governor's railroad names its own town

Jeremiah Morrow never lived in the village that bears his name. He had already served two terms as Ohio's governor (1822-1826) and represented the state in Congress and the U.S. Senate before, in his mid-sixties, he took the unpaid presidency of the newly chartered Little Miami Railroad Company in 1836 - Ohio's first railroad out of Cincinnati. Construction crept north along the Little Miami valley through the early 1840s, reaching a grist mill on James Miranda's farm at the mouth of Todd's Fork by 1844. When the village that grew up around that rail stop was platted in 1845, it took the name of the railroad's elderly first president rather than its founder's or a settler's, one of several Ohio towns along the line named for men who built it rather than men who lived in it.

From Cincinnati's first railroad to a rail-trail crossing

The Little Miami Railroad reached Morrow in 1844 and was running scheduled trains between Cincinnati and Xenia by August 1845; from 1853 it was operated as a single line with the Columbus and Xenia Railroad between Ohio's largest city and its capital, with Morrow as a stop along the way. The railroad's grade through the village has since become the Little Miami Scenic Trail, a rail-trail that crosses Todd's Fork on the old railroad bridge just south of downtown - a bridge that once carried freight and passengers between Cincinnati and Columbus and now carries hikers and cyclists over the same stream that once powered the Miranda grist mill that put Morrow on the map.

A rural water company and a PFAS fix

Western Water Company, the customer-owned rural system founded in 1976 to serve parts of Brown, Clermont, Clinton and Warren counties, tested its supply under Ohio EPA's PFAS Sampling Initiative in 2021 and found the "forever chemicals" present, though below the state's action level. Rather than wait, the company sought federal help, and in 2023 USDA Rural Development obligated a $7.5 million Water and Waste Disposal loan to expand the treatment plant serving Morrow specifically to remove PFAS. On April 25, 2024, USDA's Ohio state director and Western Water officials gathered in Morrow to mark the award, with the expansion - serving an estimated 50,000 rural southwest Ohio customers - scheduled to run from 2025 into 2026.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · morrowoh.com · buckeyetrail.org · warren.ohgenweb.org · en.wikipedia.org · britannica.com · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · villageofwaynesville.org · web.archive.org

Ohio River intake at the plant's riverfront on Kellogg Ave in the California neighborhood, east Cincinnati The water here

• Western Water Company56% of residentsLittle Miami River valley wells (51%) plus Cincinnati Ohio River water (49%)
• Warren County22% of residentsWells in the Little Miami and Great Miami river valley aquifers
• Morrow Village17% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• South Lebanon City4% of residentsOhio River (Miller Plant, ~88%) plus Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer wells (~12%)

Nursing homes (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (2)

Public libraries (1)

Police stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• Fiscal watch: declared 2007-11-08, released 2009-09-03. source

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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