Pitsburg

How Pitsburg began

Pitsburg is the only village in Monroe Township, in the southeastern corner of Darke County, built on both sides of the line between Sections 7 and 12. Called Pittsburg in 1880, when the county historian wrote that it 'lives only in name and story,' it was known for some years as Arnettsville and was renamed in 1909. After a railroad (the Peoria and Eastern, formerly the I. B. & W.) was built through the township it became, in the 1914 county history's words, probably the best built and most prosperous village of its size in Darke County. It had 240 residents in 1910, 462 at its 1970 peak, and 381 in 2020.

Platted before 1880 (date not found).

Where the name comes from

The 1880 county history spells the place Pittsburg and gives no reason for the name. The 1914 county history says that 'for several years this village was known as Arnettsville but the name was changed in 1909,' and thereafter spells it Pitsburg. Why the old name was restored in a changed spelling is not stated; the Arnett family were Monroe Township farmers in 1880, but no source links them to the name.

Before the town

No Native American village or site specific to Pitsburg is recorded in the sources checked. Monroe Township, in the southeastern corner of Darke County, was a low, swampy forest when settled; the 1880 county history says only, in general terms, that settlers heard 'the whoop of the red man,' which is rhetoric rather than a record. The land lies south of the Greenville treaty line, ceded in 1795.

Nations recorded here: Miami, Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1819 — Asa Jones and Henry Addington build the first cabins in what becomes Monroe Township, on Section 8.
2. 1836 — Monroe Township is laid off in June from the east end of Twin Township; its first election that autumn sees John Oakes cast the first ballot.
3. 1880 — The county historian writes that Monroe has no village, only a place called Pittsburg whose founders' dream of greatness has gone, so that it 'lives only in name and story.'
4. 1900 — Census population is 157.
5. 1909 — The village, for several years known as Arnettsville, takes the name Pitsburg.
6. 1910 — Census population is 240, and the township, at 1,539, is one of the few in the county to have gained since 1900.
7. 1912 — Pittsburg is the first-named station on the Peoria and Eastern (formerly I. B. & W.) railway, which enters Darke County in northern Monroe Township and has about twenty-two miles of main track in the county.
8. 1914 — Pitsburg has a public school, a Methodist Episcopal church, a bank, hotel, fire department, elevators, lumber yards and about a hundred buildings; its real property is assessed at $167,090.
9. 1920 — Census population is 302.
10. 1970 — Population peaks at 462.
11. 2020 — Census population is 381.

Stories

A village that was written off, then came back

In 1880 the county historian had little good to say of the place then spelled Pittsburg: some founder, 'perhaps in a day away back in the past,' had had an idle dream of future greatness, and 'the ravages of time, the destroyer of all things,' had laid his ambition in the dust, so that the village lived only in name and story. Frazer Wilson's county history of 1914 replied that had the earlier writer postponed his verdict he would have had 'quite a different tale to tell.' Pitsburg was now, in Wilson's view, the best built and most prosperous village of its size in Darke County, with a school, a bank, a hotel, a fire department, elevators, lumber yards and about a hundred buildings, an especially good shipping point for grain and for the immense tobacco crops of the surrounding country. What had changed was the railroad: the Peoria and Eastern (earlier the I. B. & W.) came through the township with Pittsburg first among its Darke County stations. The village had also changed its name, from Arnettsville back to Pitsburg, in 1909.

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

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

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 0 of 1 passed.

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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-10-02

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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