Quincy

How Quincy began

Quincy sits in the west of Miami Township on the Great Miami River, ground the water sources here describe as Shawnee hunting territory before the War of 1812. James Baldwin and Manlove Chambers platted the village in 1830 on land settled from about 1820, naming it for President John Quincy Adams; it incorporated in 1839. Two railroads reached Quincy in the second half of the 1800s, and a violent 1872 tornado destroyed roughly half the town in minutes. Population peaked near 700 in the mid-20th century and stood at 536 at the 2020 census.

Settled c. 1820-1828, platted 1830, incorporated February 9, 1839, by James Baldwin and Manlove Chambers.

Where the name comes from

Quincy was named for John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, at the time it was platted in 1830.

Before the town

Miami Township, where Quincy stands, is remembered in local sources as Shawnee hunting and settlement ground: Stony Creek and Bokengehalas Creek, which both feed the Great Miami River through the township, are described as having 'nurtured the needs of many tribes of Shawnee Indians,' with deer, bear and turkey drawing hunters to the area. Most Shawnee residents had left the immediate area by the time of the War of 1812, consistent with the broader county pattern in which the Upper Mad River Shawnee towns were destroyed in 1786 and the remaining Shawnee population was pushed onto the Lewistown Reservation after 1817 and removed west after 1832. A marked 'Indian Old Town' site on Stony Creek near its meeting with the Great Miami River, about a mile and a half southwest of DeGraff (also partly in Miami Township), is the specific village location named in the sources consulted; no other named village, mound or earthwork within Quincy itself was found. Nearby Bokengehalas Creek carries the name of a Lenape (Delaware) chief who settled along its banks, according to the 1880 county history cited by its Wikipedia entry, a reminder that Delaware as well as Shawnee people lived in this part of the county. The county's longer Native American history includes the Adena and Hopewell mound-building periods.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware).

• Indian Old Town (village) — on Stony Creek near its confluence with the Great Miami River, about 1.5 miles southwest of DeGraff, Miami Township, pre-1812 (quincyohio.com)

Timeline

1. 1806 — John Makemson arrived from Kentucky as one of the first permanent settlers in this part of Logan County, purchasing 160 acres; his son Cyrus later expanded the family's holdings to 390 acres.
2. 1825 — Dr. Canby arrived from Lebanon, Ohio and built a mill on the north side of the Miami River near the future village.
3. 1830 — James Baldwin and Manlove Chambers platted the village of Quincy and named it for John Quincy Adams.
4. 1831 — John Bell arrived from Berkeley County, Virginia, with his wife; their daughter Ann Bell became the first baby girl born in Quincy.
5. 1834 — A post office was established at Quincy on March 12, with Jesse Dodson Jr. as first postmaster.
6. 1839 — Quincy was formally incorporated as a village on February 9.
7. 1852 — The Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Indianapolis railroad reached Quincy after nearly three years of hand-grading its eastern approach, much of the work done by Irish immigrant laborers living in poor conditions; some died of cholera during construction.
8. 1872 — A tornado struck Quincy about 6:00 p.m. on June 8, cutting a track roughly 50 yards wide and destroying about half the town; Mrs. Rose Glick died of her injuries the next day, and the damaged Baptist church never rebuilt, its congregation joining the Methodists.
9. 1893 — The Detroit, Toledo and Ironton railroad reached Quincy, completed with a steel bridge across the Miami River reported at 90 feet high, said at the time to be the highest in the state.
10. 1912 — Ann (Bell) Dorman, one of the village's first native-born children, gave the pioneer song 'This New Country,' believed to trace to her family's Virginia heritage, to Quincy's Buckeye Press.

Stories

An hourglass funnel takes half the town

On the evening of June 8, 1872, around six o'clock, a tornado described by witnesses as hourglass-shaped — narrow where it touched down, wide above — cut a path roughly 50 yards across through Quincy. In a matter of minutes it destroyed about half the village. Mrs. Rose Glick, injured in the storm, died the following day, the disaster's only confirmed fatality. Both the Baptist and Methodist churches were badly damaged; the Baptist congregation never rebuilt its building and instead joined the Methodists, a small structural change in the village's religious life that outlasted the storm itself by generations.

Grading the railroad by hand

When the Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Indianapolis railroad was built through Quincy in 1852, its eastern approach required nearly three years of manual grading, work done largely by Irish immigrant laborers. They lived in poor conditions during construction, and some contracted cholera; local accounts describe several being buried secretly, away from public notice, rather than in the town's regular burial grounds. Four decades later, in 1893, a second line, the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton, reached the village and crossed the Miami River on a steel bridge reported at 90 feet high — said at the time to be the tallest railroad bridge in Ohio.

Photographs

Local history sources: quincyohio.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · loganhistory.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Quincy Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

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, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-02-13

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.

Cite this page