Saint Henry

How Saint Henry began

St. Henry was founded in July 1837 when German immigrant Johann Heinrich Römer bought land from his brother Franz and had it surveyed on July 7; the town was platted July 13, the feast day of St. Henry (Henry II, the canonized Holy Roman Emperor), and the plat was recorded July 15. A post office opened in 1850, St. Henry's Catholic Church was completed in 1897 and is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the village incorporated in 1901. The 1907 county history describes the people of Granville Township as mostly German or of German descent, with all four of the township's churches Roman Catholic.

Settled 1837-07-07, platted 1837-07-13 (plat recorded July 13 per the 1907 county history; July 15 per Wikipedia), incorporated 1901, by Johann Heinrich Römer (Henry Romer).

Where the name comes from

The town takes its name from St. Henry (Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor); it was platted on July 13, 1837, the saint's feast day.

Before the town

No Native village, trail or treaty site specific to St. Henry was found. The village sits within Granville Township, near the southern edge of Mercer County and close to the Greenville Treaty Line, which runs along the township's southern boundary.

Nations recorded here: Miami, Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1837-07-07 — Johann Heinrich Römer acquires the town's land from his brother Franz and has it surveyed.
2. 1837-07-13 — The town of St. Henry is platted, on the feast day of St. Henry.
3. 1837-07-15 — The plat is formally recorded.
4. 1839 — Henry Beckman is an early business man at St. Henry; Henry Bruns, who came in 1827, runs the second cabin and a blacksmith shop that grows into one of the town's main industries.
5. 1850 — A post office opens in St. Henry.
6. 1880 — The population is about 200.
7. 1890 — The 1907 county history credits the village with 682 inhabitants.
8. 1897 — St. Henry's Catholic Church, later listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is completed.
9. 1901 — St. Henry incorporates as a village.
10. 1920 — The census counts 304 residents.
11. 1960 — The census counts 711 residents.
12. 1980 — The census counts 1,096 residents.
13. 2000 — The census counts 1,804 residents.
14. 2020 — The census counts 2,596 residents.

Stories

A town named for a feast day

Johann Heinrich Römer acquired the land from his brother Franz on July 7, 1837, and had it surveyed. He platted the town on July 13, the feast day of St. Henry, the 11th-century Holy Roman Emperor later canonized by the Church, and the plat was recorded on July 15. The town took the saint's name. St. Henry's Catholic Church, completed in 1897, is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the village incorporated in 1901.

A township of German Catholics

Granville Township, in which St. Henry stands, was organized on June 5, 1837, but at first only the part north of the Greenville treaty line, which had been part of Recovery Township; the southern two-fifths joined it in 1849. The 1907 county history says its people were, as a rule, German or of German descent, and that they transformed a wilderness into scores of productive farms, owning nearly all the land. Henry Romer laid out St. Henry in 1837, and the families of Romer, Beckman and Bruns were intimately tied to its history from the start; the history says scarcely an industry in the village lacked a member of one of them. All four churches in the township were Roman Catholic: St. Henry's, St. Bernard's at Burkettsville, St. Wendelin's and St. Francis's near Cranberry Prairie. Dredging the Wabash had drained the old Cranberry Prairie marsh into the township's best farmland, and the Cincinnati Northern Railroad ran through St. Henry and Burkettsville.

Photographs

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

Groundwater wells (12 wells) The water here

• St. Henry Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (12 wells)

Nursing homes (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

Public libraries (1)

Police stations (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 1 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, 2024, released 2025-07-29

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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