Williamsburg

• East Fork LakeBuilt 1978 · 2160 acres

How Williamsburg began

Williamsburg was established in 1796 by Gen. William Lytle, a member of Cincinnati's prominent Lytle family, and named for Williamsburg, Virginia. James Kain, who had worked seasonally at the site clearing land for Lytle since 1795, became its first permanent resident that same year. The village served as Clermont County's first seat of government from 1801 until 1823. A stone dairy house built in 1800 beside Lytle's own farm, Harmony Hill, on South Third Street, is thought to be the oldest standing building anywhere in Clermont County, and stands today as the National Register-listed Harmony Hill Dairy House.

Settled 1796, platted 1796, by Gen. William Lytle.

Where the name comes from

The village was named for Williamsburg, Virginia, by founder Gen. William Lytle, a Kentucky-born surveyor and soldier who platted the town on his own land. A post office under the spelling "Williamsburgh" opened in 1802; the spelling was standardized to "Williamsburg" in 1893.

Before the town

The 1880 county history records a Native trail and campsite through the site of Williamsburgh, near the intersection of present Third and Walnut Streets, of which "no name is known" -- the historian, working from local research, could recover no memory of the specific people who had traveled or camped there before white settlement, admitting that "history, tradition, and song are silent" on the point. The same source records local speculation, presented as unverified tradition rather than confirmed fact, that a battle may once have occurred nearby at the junction of the East Fork and Kain Run, based on human bones and stone weapons later found there. Gen. William Lytle, the village's founder, was himself pursued by a small party of Native men while surveying in nearby Jackson Township in the 1790s, losing his pocket compass in the chase (later recovered and preserved). The wider Native history of the surrounding area includes the 1792 Battle of Grassy Run.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Williamsburgh village trail and camp (trail) — within Williamsburg village, near the intersection of present Third and Walnut Streets, undated, historic era (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1795 — James Kain begins working seasonally at the future town site, clearing land for Gen. William Lytle.
2. 1796 — Gen. William Lytle platts Williamsburgh, naming it for Williamsburg, Virginia; James Kain moves his family there that fall, becoming the village's first permanent settler and its first innkeeper.
3. 1800 — A stone dairy house is built beside Harmony Hill, William Lytle's own farm, on what becomes South Third Street -- believed today to be the oldest standing building in Clermont County.
4. 1801 — February 25: the first Clermont County court convenes at Williamsburgh, formally making it the temporary county seat.
5. 1802 — A post office opens under the spelling "Williamsburgh."
6. 1804 — July 4: James Perrine marries Polly Kain, James Kain's daughter and the first white woman in Williamsburgh.
7. 1823 — Williamsburgh loses its status as Clermont County seat when the legislature moves the seat to New Richmond, following the loss of territory to newly organized Brown County in 1818.
8. 1893 — The village's official spelling is standardized from "Williamsburgh" to "Williamsburg."

Stories

The oldest building in the county

When Gen. William Lytle platted Williamsburgh in 1796 and settled on the farm he called Harmony Hill just outside the new village, he had a stone dairy house built beside the farmhouse to keep milk and cream cool through the county's hot, humid summers -- an ordinary piece of farm infrastructure that, more than two centuries later, is believed to be the oldest standing building anywhere in Clermont County. The little stone structure on South Third Street outdates the county's own organization by four years, the courthouse that made Williamsburgh the temporary county seat, and every church, tavern or inn built in the village during its brief quarter-century as Clermont's seat of government. It survives today as the National Register-listed Harmony Hill Dairy House, a modest reminder that the buildings that last are not always the ones built to be remembered.

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

Every historic place in Clermont County on the full map

Five wells in the sand-and-gravel aquifer of the Little Miami River valley at Miamiville, Miami Township The water here

• Williamsburg Village53% of residentsWilliam H. Harsha Lake plus wells in the Little Miami River and Ohio River aquifers
• Western Water Company21% of residentsLittle Miami River valley wells (51%) plus Cincinnati Ohio River water (49%)
• Mount Orab Village15% of residentsSterling Run (reservoirs)
• Tate-monroe Water Association11% of residentsOhio River valley aquifer (collector/vertical wells)

Public schools (2)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Public libraries (1)

Police stations (1)

Public EV charging (2)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2016: 4 of 4 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

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.

Cite this page