South Webster

How South Webster began

South Webster was platted in 1853 by John Bennett in eastern Scioto County's Bloom Township, and, according to Wikipedia, named for the statesman Daniel Webster; we found no other source for this. Its one National Register listing, the Tripp-Bauer Building at 51-53 North Jackson Street, was listed in 1988. The village's population has drifted down in recent decades, from 866 at the 2010 census to 670 in 2020, even as its Bloom-Vernon High School basketball team brought home the 2006 Division IV state championship.

Platted 1853, by John Bennett.

Where the name comes from

According to Wikipedia, named for Daniel Webster, the American statesman and orator; we found no other source that confirms this.

Before the town

No Native site or event specific to South Webster was found in the sources consulted.

Timeline

1. 1826 — The Methodist Episcopal church of the Bloom Township area is organized by Rev. John R. Turner and Asa Ballinger; it builds its first South Webster church in 1853.
2. 1830 — The Bloom Baptist Church is organized at Bloom Switch; its present building at South Webster, on Tyrrel and Pearl streets, goes up in 1859.
3. 1853-03-25 — The Scioto & Hocking Valley Railroad is completed to South Webster on March 25; by October trains run through to Jackson.
4. 1853 — John Bennett has the town platted, surveyed by George S. Walton and William Tyrrell; the county history calls it one of the first places settled in Bloom Township.
5. 1869 — The Webster Fire Brick Company, later part of the Portsmouth and Kentucky Fire Brick Company, is organized in the fall.
6. 1880 — A German Evangelical church (organized 1879) and a United Brethren church (30 members) both build in South Webster.
7. 1888 — A post office named South Webster is recorded, 1888 to the present.
8. 1889 — The legislature authorizes South Webster on March 28 to levy $100 to buy a cemetery.
9. 1900 — The census counts 441 residents; the brick plant employs nearly 200 men by the time the county history is written in 1903.
10. 1988-06-09 — The Tripp-Bauer Building at 51-53 North Jackson Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
11. 2000 — The village's population is recorded at 764.
12. 2006 — South Webster's Bloom-Vernon High School wins the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division IV state basketball championship.
13. 2010 — Population rises to 866, a 13.4 percent increase from 2000.
14. 2020 — Population falls to 670, a 22.6 percent decrease from 2010.

Stories

The fire-clay hills of Frederick Creek

The hills along Frederick Creek in Bloom Township, the 1903 county history says, were 'famous the world over for the immense banks of fire clay in them.' South Webster, platted in 1853 where the Scioto & Hocking Valley Railroad reached on March 25 of that year, drew its living from the clay. In the fall of 1869 the Webster Fire Brick Company was organized, and by 1903 the brick plant employed about 200 men, plus 75 more in the clay mines on Frederick. The same clay was used as the bonding material for the paving brick made at Sciotoville and the building brick at South Webster, because it made the bricks harder and more vitrified, though alone it fused too easily to make fire brick. The village itself counted 441 people in 1900 and had four churches: Baptist, Methodist Episcopal, German Evangelical and United Brethren.

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

Every historic place in Scioto County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Jackson Co. Water Company-wtp93% of residentsTeays River Buried Valley Aquifer (own wells)
• Hecla Water Association7% of residentsOhio River

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (2)

Public libraries (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

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, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-02-24

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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