New Madison

How New Madison began

New Madison began as Fort Black, a War of 1812 blockhouse built in 1813; Zadoc Smith, who acquired the fort's land, held a Christmas Day 1817 lot auction that drew only two buyers who actually built. Ernestus Putnam bought out Smith's claim in 1819, spent over a decade reacquiring the scattered lots, and formally surveyed the village fresh in 1831, naming it for his former home of Madison, Indiana. Putnam became the village's great benefactor, donating land for its first school, cemetery, militia ground and church; by 1880 the village of 562 people had a new $7,000 brick town hall, a $7,500 school building, a brewery, a tannery, and two steam sawmills.

Settled 1813 (Fort Black, a War of 1812 blockhouse), platted 1817 (Zadoc Smith, failed); replatted 1831 (Ernestus Putnam), by Zadoc Smith (1817, on the former Fort Black site); Ernestus Putnam (1831 replat).

Where the name comes from

Named by Ernestus Putnam for Madison, Indiana, his former home, after he acquired and replanned Zadoc Smith's failed 1817 town plat at the site of the old War of 1812-era Fort Black.

Before the town

No Native American village or site specific to present-day New Madison is documented in the sources checked, though the village occupies the site of Fort Black, a War of 1812-era blockhouse built in 1813 in response to Native hostility in the surrounding Harrison Township country; see the Harrison Township unit for that history. The village sits in western Darke County, part of the broader Miami and Shawnee homeland ceded under the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Miami.

Timeline

1. 1813 — Fort Black is built in the fall by Lieutenant Black, of a company under Captain Nesbitt, on the land that becomes New Madison's town site.
2. 1817-12-25 — Zadoc Smith, who has acquired the fort's land, holds a public sale of town lots; only Henry Hutton and Frederick Fulke buy lots and actually build.
3. 1819 — Smith sells his entire claim to Ernestus Putnam, who had entered the adjoining quarter-section and kept a small store at his house.
4. 1831 — Putnam, having bought back the previously sold lots, vacates the old plat and formally surveys New Madison, laying off seventeen lots on each side of Main Street; he opens the first store, transferring his stock from Fort Black, and a Mr. Hyde becomes the first blacksmith.
5. 1847 — The village's brick church is built with Putnam superintending and community donations (including $50 each from the Foulke and Hollingshead families, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Carson and Dr. Kilpatrick); Putnam restricts its use to orthodox denominations.
6. 1857 — The German Reformed Church, under Rev. Voght, organizes and takes over use of the 1847 church building, which Putnam himself joins.
7. 1859-04-03 — The Universalist church organizes with thirty-one members under Pastor Henry Gifford; its building is dedicated in January 1860.
8. 1868-10-21 — Fort Black Lodge No. 413, F. & A.M., is chartered with sixteen members; L. S. B. Otwell serves as first Master.
9. 1870 — A substantial two-story schoolhouse, 50x50 feet with four rooms, is built for about $7,500 total, with Thomas Eubanks as first superintendent, replacing the original school building.
10. 1878 — New Madison's Methodist Episcopal Church is built in the summer, and a new three-story brick town hall, 70x40 feet and costing about $7,000, is completed with George Bacon as contractor.
11. 1880 — Census records the village's population at 562; the New Madison Brewery (John Lantry, proprietor, operating since 1858) has stood idle since 1875, and the village's tannery, dating from an early day, has been idle since March 1880.

Stories

A town platted twice, on the ruins of a fort

New Madison's origins trace back further than its name suggests. The site was first Fort Black, a War of 1812 blockhouse raised in 1813 to protect settlers from Native hostility in the surrounding country. When the fighting ended, landowner Zadoc Smith saw an opportunity and staged a Christmas Day auction of town lots in 1817 -- a 'speculative movement,' the county history calls it, that anticipated a demand which did not yet exist: only two buyers, Henry Hutton and Frederick Fulke, actually built. Discouraged, Smith sold out to neighbor Ernestus Putnam in 1819, who spent over a decade quietly buying back the handful of lots already sold before vacating the failed plat entirely and surveying the village fresh in 1831, naming it for Madison, Indiana, the town he had left behind. It took two plats, fourteen years, and one abandoned fort to produce the New Madison that stands today.

The founder who gave everything away

Ernestus Putnam did more than replat New Madison -- he built its civic infrastructure almost single-handedly. He donated the ground and a log building for the village's first school. He and neighbor John Wade gave land for its cemetery. He provided public ground for the militia's parade grounds. And when the community needed a church, he gave the land, personally superintended construction of the 1847 brick building, and solicited donations from neighbors ranging from $50 down -- with the sole condition that the building be reserved for 'orthodox denominations only.' When religious politics shifted a decade later and the German Reformed Church organized under Rev. Voght in 1857, Putnam himself joined the new congregation and turned the church building over to its use, appointing its first trustees personally. Few Darke County villages owe as much of their basic civic fabric to one settler's sustained generosity.

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

Every historic place in Darke County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• New Madison Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (5 wells)

Community health centers (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

Public libraries (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (2)

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, 2025, released 2026-05-26
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-09-30

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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