Richmond

How Richmond began

Joseph Talbott bought the land under Richmond from Bazaleel Wells in 1799 at $2.50 an acre, settled it in 1800, and in 1815 had surveyor Isaac Jenkins lay out the town, completed September 20, 1815. The village incorporated January 27, 1835, with Adam Stewart as first mayor, and the same year saw the chartering of what became Richmond College, which operated with few interruptions from 1843 into the 1880s under a changing series of sponsors -- first independent, then Steubenville Presbytery, then the Pittsburgh Methodist Episcopal Conference, then private owners -- and counted future Union war secretary Edwin M. Stanton among its board members. The 1880 county history records that Salem Township supported ten churches, ten schools and this one college, alongside its three villages. Richmond's population grew from 231 in 1830 to 692 by 1860, and like much of rural Jefferson County has since declined from a later peak of 777 in 1970 to 412 at the 2020 census; Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raiders passed through the village in 1863.

Settled 1800 (Joseph Talbott, who had purchased the land from Bazaleel Wells in 1799), platted surveyed by Isaac Jenkins and completed September 20, 1815, incorporated January 27, 1835, by act of the Ohio General Assembly; first election held April 25, 1835 with Adam Stewart as first mayor, by Joseph Talbott.

Where the name comes from

Name origin not stated in the sources consulted; Richmond is a common American place name, frequently honoring Richmond, Virginia or Richmond, England.

Before the town

No source reviewed names a specific Native American village, mound or documented encounter within Richmond. The village was laid out in 1815, two decades after the Treaty of Greenville (1795) opened Salem Township to settlement.

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

Timeline

1. 1815 — Richmond is laid out in Salem Township.
2. 1817 — A post office opens under the Richmond name.
3. 1830 — Village population is recorded at 231.
4. 1860 — Village population grows to 692.
5. 1863 — Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raiders pass through Richmond during Morgan's Raid, en route to defeat at the Battle of Salineville.
6. 1970 — Village population peaks at 777.
7. 1835 — The Ohio General Assembly charters the 'Board of Directors of the Richmond Classical Institute' on January 22, and Richmond village incorporates by separate act on January 27; the institute holds no classes for its first eight years.
8. 1843 — The Richmond Classical Institute finally opens for instruction, leasing the basement of the old Methodist Episcopal Church, with Rev. John E. Dundass as president and D. D. McBryer as professor of languages and natural science.
9. 1847 — The board petitions the legislature to rename the school from Richmond Classical Institute to Richmond College.
10. 1873 — A new brick college building and a three-story boarding hall for fifty students are dedicated on August 28, on grounds donated in part by Lewis Ong, replacing the original college building, which was sold.

Stories

A township that built a college along with its villages

Salem Township's 1880 history describes a rural landscape unusually rich in institutions for its size: three villages -- Richmond, East Springfield and Salem -- supporting ten churches, ten schools, and, remarkably for a township of farms, a college. Richmond College traced its roots to a select school taught by Rev. J. C. Tydball around 1832, which prompted a group of townsmen to seek a charter in 1835 for the 'Richmond Classical Institute.' Nothing came of the charter for eight years; only in 1843 did the board actually open a school, in the basement of the old Methodist church. Renamed Richmond College in 1847, the institution passed through the hands of the Steubenville Presbytery, then the Pittsburgh Methodist Episcopal Conference, then a private company, with presidents and professors turning over every few years -- one of them, J. T. Holmes, left in 1862 to raise a Union volunteer company. Edwin M. Stanton, who would become Lincoln's secretary of war, sat on its board. By the time the 1880 history was compiled the college had operated, with only brief interruptions, for thirty-six years -- a striking record for a small denominational college of its era, and a reminder of how much institutional ambition a rural Ohio village could sustain. Richmond itself grew steadily through this period, tripling in population from 231 residents in 1830 to 692 by 1860, before Morgan's Confederate raiders passed through its streets in 1863 on their long flight across southern Ohio.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Wintersville Village100% of residentsOhio River

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 3 of 3 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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-10-14

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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