South Amherst

How South Amherst began

South Amherst is a village on the South Ridge in the south of Amherst Township. Eliphalet Redington settled on the ridge in February 1818 and was the first postmaster of the Black River post office, which stood here. The 1879 county history called it a small unincorporated cluster of houses once known as 'Podunk' and the 'Little Whig hole', because nearly all its residents were Whigs. It grew from 847 people in 1940 to 2,913 in 1970 as a suburb of Elyria and Lorain and held 1,581 in 2020. Its own high school merged into the Firelands district in 1988.

Settled February 1818 (Eliphalet Redington, South Ridge), incorporated Unincorporated in 1879; no incorporation date found, by Eliphalet Redington.

Where the name comes from

South Amherst's name straightforwardly marks its position south of the city of Amherst; no further origin detail is documented in the sources consulted. The 1879 county history records that the settlement was known for many years by the unofficial nicknames 'Podunk' and the 'Little Whig hole,' the latter because nearly all its residents, including every postmaster up to the end of the Whig party, were Whigs.

Before the town

No mound or village is recorded at South Amherst. The 1879 county history says that George Disbrow, an early settler of the South Ridge, often dealt with the Native people of the neighborhood, in the township's early years, and was on very pleasant terms with some of them; the same history identifies the Native people of Amherst as Seneca of the Sandusky band.

Nations recorded here: Seneca (Sandusky band, Mingo).

Timeline

1. February 1817 — Black River Township, which includes the future South Amherst, is organized by the Huron County commissioners; the Black River post office is placed on the South River, now South Amherst, with Eliphalet Redington as postmaster.
2. February 1818 — Eliphalet Redington settles on the South Ridge, now South Amherst; the Legislature names him to the committee that locates the road from the foot of the Maumee rapids to Elyria. A Sanderson settles nearby the same year.
3. 12 January 1830 — South Amherst becomes part of the new Amherst Township when the Legislature divides Black River Township.
4. October 1834 — George Disbrow, a blacksmith from Greene County, New York, takes up lot 10 at South Amherst; he later serves as one of the first trustees of Russia Township.
5. 1835 — Roswell Cune operates a tannery at South Amherst, one of its earliest documented businesses.
6. 1878 — The village is unincorporated; its businesses are Henry Jackson's general store, a harness maker, a shoemaker and a wagon maker, its post office is called Amherst, and its postmasters from Eliphalet Redington on (A. H. Redington, Peter Lunt, Joseph Reynolds, J. C. Jackson and now Henry Jackson) were all Whigs, giving it the nickname 'Little Whig hole.'
7. 1920 — The village counts 944 residents at the census.
8. 1950 — Population is 1,020, up from 847 in 1940.
9. 1970 — Population peaks at 2,913, up from 1,657 in 1960 and down to 1,848 by 1980.
10. 1988 — South Amherst's own high school merges into the Firelands Local School District.
11. 2020 — Census records 1,581 residents across the village's 2.42 square miles.

Stories

The Little Whig Hole

Long before it was South Amherst, the small settlement in the southern part of Amherst township went by two unofficial names. One was 'Podunk,' a generic joke-name settlers of the era hung on small, out-of-the-way places. The other, more pointed, was the 'Little Whig hole' -- because nearly every resident, and every postmaster the settlement had until the Whig party itself died out (Eliphalet Redington, then his son A. H. Redington, then Peter Lunt), belonged to that political persuasion. The 1879 county history found little else to say about the place: it was never incorporated, and by then amounted to a general store run by Henry Jackson, a harness maker, a shoemaker and a wagon maker clustered around a handful of houses. Its earliest documented business was a tannery Roswell Cune ran there starting around 1835.

The road from the Maumee rapids

Eliphalet Redington reached the South Ridge in February 1818 and was soon important enough to be named by the Ohio Legislature to the committee that located a state road. The road in question was the link between the eastern end of the road running east from the foot of the rapids of the Miami of the Lake and Elyria. He also became the first postmaster of the Black River post office, which stood on the South River, now South Amherst, while a second office, the Mouth of Black River, served the lake settlement. His son A. H. Redington followed him as postmaster, and the unbroken line of Whig postmasters gave the village its second nickname.

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

Lake Erie, drawn from an intake crib about 26.5 feet deep and 2,800 feet offshore outside the breakwall, west of the Black River harbor The water here

• Amherst City87% of residentsLake Erie (mainly via Elyria)
• South Amherst Village10% of residentsLake Erie
• Rural Lorain Co. Water A3% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Police stations (1)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-23
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2021 to 2022, released 2025-05-27

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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