Venedocia

How Venedocia began

Venedocia was founded in April 1848 by three families -- William Bebb, Thomas Morris and Richard Jervis -- who had just arrived from North Wales and settled on the York-Jennings township line; Welsh-language religious services began the first Sunday after their arrival. A post office under the village's name opened in 1866, the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist congregation dedicated a frame church in 1868, and a new $20,000 Salem Church was dedicated in 1898. The 1906 county history calls Venedocia the centre of a Welsh farming settlement and notes that its Male Chorus had won prizes in contests in other states and in Ohio cities. The census counted 140 residents in 2020.

Settled April 1848, by William Bebb, Thomas Morris and Richard Jervis.

Where the name comes from

Welsh settlers from North Wales founded the village in 1848. The origin of the name Venedocia is not recorded.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or treaty site specific to Venedocia is recorded. The village's own documented history begins with its 1848 founding by Welsh immigrant families, three decades after the 1818 land cession.

Timeline

1. 1840-10-18 — Twenty-three qualified electors vote in York Township at the October election for state and county officers; the 1906 county history prints their names, among them Jesse Atkinson, John Arnold and Lewis Culver, on the township side of the later Venedocia settlement.
2. 1844 — Daniel Walters builds a small water mill where Venedocia now stands, one of the first mills near the later village; the 1906 history quotes a pioneer who called it fine, though the flour had to be bolted by hand.
3. 1848-04 — William Bebb, Thomas Morris and Richard Jervis arrive from North Wales with their families and settle at the future site of Venedocia; Welsh-language religious services begin the first Sunday after their arrival, held in a log cabin.
4. 1861-1865 — Six Venedocia men -- Moses Parry, David R. Owens, John Hughes, John Jervis Jones, Lewis Thomas and Jonathan Jones -- serve in the 118th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War; three never return.
5. 1866 — A post office called Venedocia opens.
6. 1868-07-04 — The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist congregation completes and dedicates a frame church 40 by 60 feet in Venedocia, with Rev. J. Powell of Cincinnati and Rev. Thomas Levi of Wales taking part; about 240 members had worshipped together at the congregation's height before two branch churches were set off.
7. 1896-11 — The English Presbyterian Church in the Venedocia neighbourhood is dedicated; with the Zion and Horeb branch churches it is one of four churches built in the farming community in ten years at a cost of about $41,000.
8. 1898 — The congregation dedicates a new $20,000 Salem Church building, marking the settlement's 50th anniversary.
9. 1902 — A Van Wert merchant named Roberts and Welsh friends form the Cambrian Oil Company, which leases about 1,000 acres of oil land in the vicinity of Venedocia; the 1906 history says many of its wells are in operation.
10. 1906 — The county history describes Venedocia as the centre of a Welsh farming settlement whose Venedocia Male Chorus has won prizes in contests in other states and in Ohio cities.
11. before 1906 — David W. Evans and the late Morgan H. Morgan secure the right of way that brings the Clover Leaf Railroad from Delphos through Venedocia.
12. 1910 — Venedocia records its historical peak population of 247.
13. 2000 — The census counts 160 residents in Venedocia.
14. 2010 — The census counts 124 residents in Venedocia, 53 households.
15. 2020 — The census counts 140 residents in Venedocia.

Stories

A choir that carried Wales to Ohio

The 1906 Van Wert County history says the Venedocia Male Chorus, a source of pride to the Welsh of Venedocia, had won many prizes in music contests in other states as well as in the larger cities of Ohio, and that its singing was an attractive feature of one Winona Bible Conference. The large frame building owned by the chorus and known as Cambrian Hall was formerly the church of the place, removed to make room for the present church.

The roof that fell forty feet

While the Welsh congregation at Venedocia was raising its church, eight men were lifting the heavy roof timbers into place when the beams they stood on broke and they fell about forty feet among the joists below, tangled with plank, pike-poles and tools. The county historian of 1906 wrote that the surprise would have been less had all eight been killed. Instead every one recovered: the men were Rev. J. P. Morgan, D. W. Evans, William E. Jones, Hugh E. Evans, Jonathan Jones, William Finifrock, David M. Jones and John Breese. Only the last two were badly hurt, with broken ribs and a broken thigh, and their lives hung in the balance for weeks. The building later became Cambrian Hall, home of the Venedocia Male Chorus, after the larger church of 1898 replaced it.

Photographs

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

No water-system data is linked to Venedocia's ZIP codes yet.

Money issues on the ballot since 2024: 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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-11-13

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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