Rayland

How Rayland began

Rayland began as Portland Station, one of the largest port towns on the Ohio River in Warren Township, and grew a post office under that name in 1871. Its best-known landmark was the Stringer Stone House, built in 1836 by abolitionist John Brown Bayless, famous for its Italian murals and visited by future Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876; the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 but burned in 1982, and its listing remains even though the building itself is gone. The settlement was renamed Rayland in 1928 and incorporated as a village in 1938; its population has declined from 681 in 1940 to 395 by the 2020 census.

Settled by 1836 (Stringer Stone House era, as Portland Station), platted not found in sources reviewed, incorporated 1938, by not named in sources reviewed.

Where the name comes from

First known as Portland Station; renamed Rayland in 1928. The source consulted does not explain the reasoning behind either name.

Before the town

No source reviewed names a specific Native American village, mound or documented encounter within Rayland/Portland Station itself. The village lies within Warren Township, whose 1780s-90s settlement record includes several documented Native-settler conflicts, including a killing near Portland itself (per the township's 1880 county history, a group of intoxicated Native men was killed near the close of the eighteenth century by a party of white settlers at a point above Portland) -- placing that specific, if grim, documented event within a few miles of this village.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware).

Timeline

1. 1836 — Abolitionist John Brown Bayless builds the Stringer Stone House, later famous for its Italian murals.
2. 1871 — A post office opens under the name Portland Station.
3. 1876 — Future Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes visits the Stringer Stone House.
4. 1928 — The village is renamed Rayland.
5. 1938 — Rayland incorporates as a village.
6. 1974 — The Stringer Stone House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 10.
7. 1982 — The Stringer Stone House burns; it remains on the National Register despite the building's loss.

Stories

A governor's visit to an abolitionist's mansion

The Stringer Stone House, built in 1836 by abolitionist John Brown Bayless at 224 Main Street in what was then Portland Station, was grand enough in its day to draw a sitting political figure: future Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes visited in 1876, four years before his own run for the presidency. The house's Italian murals set it apart from the plainer stone and brick farmhouses that dotted the rest of Warren Township, and it earned a National Register listing in 1974 on the strength of that history and craftsmanship. None of that protection could save the physical building: it burned in 1982, a loss common enough for rural historic structures without fire suppression nearby, but the National Register listing itself endures, a formal record of a building the village no longer has anything to show for except a marked, empty site.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Jefferson County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Rayland Village50% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Warren Water Authority35% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Yorkville Village8% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Dillonvale6% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 2 of 2 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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2026-07-09

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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