Otway

How Otway began

Otway, in the northeast corner of Brush Creek Township, takes its name from Thomas Otway, a 17th-century English dramatist, an unusual literary namesake for a rural Ohio hamlet. A post office has operated there since 1861, but the village itself was not platted until March 29, 1884, and incorporated in 1890. Its economy once ran on the Norfolk and Western rail line between Portsmouth and Cincinnati, whose depot served the village until 1956. Just north of town, the 1874 Otway Covered Bridge still spans Scioto Brush Creek. Otway's population has fallen from a peak of 289 in 1920 to 92 at the 2020 census.

Settled 1861 (post office), platted 1884-03-29, incorporated 1890.

Where the name comes from

Named after Thomas Otway, an English dramatist.

Before the town

No Native site or event specific to Otway was found in the sources consulted.

Timeline

1. 1861 — A post office called Otway begins operating.
2. 1874 — The Smith Bridge Company builds the 127-foot Otway Covered Bridge over Scioto Brush Creek just north of the village.
3. 1884-03-29 — Otway is formally platted as a village.
4. 1890 — Otway incorporates.
5. 1920 — The village's population peaks at 289.
6. 1956 — The Norfolk and Western depot at Otway, which had served trains running between Portsmouth and Cincinnati, is converted into a convenience store.
7. 1974-05-03 — The Otway Covered Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stories

A dramatist's name on a Scioto County hamlet

Whoever named this village for Thomas Otway — a 17th-century English playwright best remembered for the tragedy Venice Preserv'd, and dead more than a century before Ohio was a state — left no explanation that survives in the sources consulted. What is documented is more mundane and more typical of the county: a post office from 1861, a formal plat only in 1884, incorporation in 1890, and a Norfolk and Western depot that kept trains between Portsmouth and Cincinnati stopping here until service needs shrank enough by 1956 that the depot building became a convenience store instead. The village peaked at 289 people in 1920 and has fallen to a third of that since; its one surviving 19th-century landmark, the 1874 covered bridge just north of town, has outlasted the rail line that once made Otway worth a stop.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Scioto County on the full map

No water-system data is linked to Otway's ZIP codes yet.

Fire and EMS stations (1)

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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-05-26

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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