North Bloomfield Township, Morrow County

How North Bloomfield Township, Morrow County began

North Bloomfield Township was established in 1817 and took its descriptive name from the wildflowers once abundant across its land. It sits in the county's northern section, bordering Richland and Crawford counties, and contains the unincorporated community of Blooming Grove, whose post office was named Corsica from 1844 to 1912. Blooming Grove is remembered locally as being close to the birthplace of President Warren G. Harding. Today the township has about 1,850 residents and no incorporated village.

Settled before 1820 (Stephen Borham, William Harris), platted Blooming Grove village platted March 5, 1835, incorporated organized as a township in 1817, by Salmon E. Harding (Blooming Grove village).

Where the name comes from

Bloomfield is a descriptive name, chosen for the wildflowers once abundant within the township's borders; 'North' distinguishes it from South Bloomfield Township elsewhere in the same county.

Before the town

No Native American site or event specific to North Bloomfield Township was found in the sources searched. The township was part of Richland County before 1848, within the region Ohio History Central and the county history describe as Shawnee hunting territory before white settlement; the 1911 county history adds that Indians were plentiful in the area in the pioneer period, passing through from Upper Sandusky to Mount Vernon on hunting trips, though none lived permanently in the immediate vicinity.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1817 — North Bloomfield Township was organized, then part of Richland County.
2. before 1820 — Stephen Borham settles about four miles south of the future village of Blooming Grove; his daughter, Mrs. Eckler, is said to be the first white child born in the township. William Harris also arrives about 1820.
3. 1819 — Amos Harding, patriarch of the Harding family, settles first (in what is still Richland County); his son Ebenezer follows in 1821-22, and sons George T. and Salmon E. Harding arrive the next year and settle south of their father.
4. 1835 — Salmon E. Harding lays out the village of Blooming Grove on his own land (with a small portion of George T. Harding's land included), and the plat is recorded March 5; William Johnson builds the first residence, and Carl and Dunlap open the first store.
5. 1841 — The post office originally established at William Wallace's residence three miles south of the future village (and named Barcelona) is removed to the newly laid out village of Blooming Grove and renamed Corsica; I. G. Baker becomes the first postmaster there.
6. 1848 — The township became part of the newly organized Morrow County.
7. 1912 — The Corsica post office, which had served Blooming Grove since 1844, closes.

Stories

Blooming Grove and its Corsica post office

For decades, the small settlement in the northeast corner of North Bloomfield Township received its mail under the name Corsica, the name given to its post office after it moved there from an earlier location. The village itself had been laid out as Blooming Grove; only its post office, from 1844 until it closed in 1912, carried the name Corsica. The place is remembered today mostly as the birthplace area of Warren G. Harding, who was born near Blooming Grove before becoming the 29th President of the United States.

From Barcelona to Corsica, before the village even existed

The post office that eventually served Blooming Grove had already had one name and one home before the village was ever platted. William Wallace kept it at his own residence on the state road three miles south of where Blooming Grove would later stand, under the name Barcelona, at 'a very early day.' Only in 1841, after Salmon E. Harding had laid out the actual village on his land, was the office moved to the new town site and renamed Corsica, with I. G. Baker taking over as postmaster. The two names, Barcelona and Corsica, both borrowed from Mediterranean places with no local connection, were typical of the period's habit of reaching for exotic-sounding names for the plainest rural crossroads.

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

Black Fork/Rocky Fork of Olentangy River via Amman, Amick & Powers Reservoirs The water here

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