Cracked BuckeyeCracked Buckeye

Story · History, schools and government

Oldest towns in Ohio

971 towns researched so far, covering 1,193 of 1,233 Ohio ZIP codes.

Open this topic on the map Local history by ZIP code

Ohio's towns were not settled all at once. The state's first permanent Euro-American settlement, Marietta, was founded in 1788 at the mouth of the Muskingum River; Cincinnati followed later that same year and Gallipolis in 1790, and the rest of the state filled in west and north over the next century, township by township, as land offices opened and roads and canals reached further.

This ranks the 25 places on this site with the earliest founding, platting or incorporation date on record, oldest first. The list only includes places whose local history has been researched so far. That work proceeds county by county, starting from Franklin County and moving outward, so a place's absence here means its history has not been reached yet, not that it lacks one.

Across the state

One dot per ZIP code, colored the way the map colors this topic; larger dots are more populous ZIP codes.

Settled before 1800 (289) 1800 to 1814 (395) 1815 to 1829 (216) 1830 to 1849 (167) 1850 to 1879 (77) 1880 or later (49) No data (40)

The 25 earliest settled

Earliest first; every ZIP code links to its own page.

  1. Lawrence TownshipTuscarawas County · ZIP 446121752
  2. Fort LoramieShelby County · ZIP 458451769
  3. Mingo JunctionJefferson County · ZIP 439381770
  4. GnadenhuttenTuscarawas County · ZIP 446291772
  5. Martins FerryBelmont County · ZIP 439351779
  6. Warren TownshipJefferson County · ZIP 439431781
  7. TiltonsvilleJefferson County · ZIP 439631784
  8. Garfield HeightsCuyahoga County · ZIP 441251786
  9. SteubenvilleJefferson County · ZIP 439521786
  10. FairfieldButler County · ZIP 450141787
  11. Milan TownshipErie County · ZIP 448461787
  12. Nile TownshipScioto County · ZIPs 45630, 456841787
  13. TorontoJefferson County · ZIP 439641787
  14. Adams TownshipWashington County · ZIP 457441788
  15. Anderson TownshipHamilton County · ZIPs 45230, 45244, 452551788
  16. BelpreWashington County · ZIP 457141788
  17. CincinnatiHamilton County · ZIPs 45202, 45203, 45204, 45205 and 18 more1788
  18. MariettaWashington County · ZIP 457501788
  19. SharonvilleHamilton County · ZIP 452411788
  20. BeverlyWashington County · ZIP 457151789
  21. Delhi TownshipHamilton County · ZIPs 45051, 45233, 452381789
  22. Terrace ParkHamilton County · ZIP 451741789
  23. Waterford TownshipWashington County · ZIPs 45721, 457861789
  24. Bethel TownshipClark County · ZIPs 45341, 453441790
  25. Colerain TownshipHamilton County · ZIPs 45239, 45251, 452521790

4 places share the last value listed (1790); the 2 shown come first by name.

How this was measured

Colors each ZIP by the year the place most of its residents live in was first settled or platted, and the History card tells that place's story: the Native nations and sites recorded there and in its county, how the town began and got its name, a dated timeline, stories, photographs and the county's own history, with a statewide note on Ohio's peoples, earthworks and treaties. The research runs county by county outward from Franklin County; each municipality and township is written up from Wikipedia, the 1880s county histories on archive.org, Ohio History Connection, National Register listings, Ohio historical markers and local historical societies, and every claim carries the page it came from. Photographs are public domain or Creative Commons, each with its credit and license. The files load on demand, so the card takes a moment the first time a county is opened.

Each town appears once, with the ZIP codes it covers; a town's year is the earliest of its settlement, platting or incorporation dates on record. A town carries a year only where its local history records one of those dates.

1,193 of 1,233 ZIP codes have a figure; ZIP codes without one are left off the list, not counted as zero. Ties are broken by ZIP code.

Every ZIP code's own page carries the full detail behind its figure, and the Local history topic page ranks the whole state.

Sources

Local history researched from Wikipedia, the 1880 county histories on archive.org, Ohio History Connection, National Register listings, Ohio historical markers, local historical societies and Wikimedia Commons, one file per municipality and township in the counties researched so far (not yet statewide), loaded on demand; Native American history for those counties and statewide from the same sources and the nations' own histories.

Ohio History Connection · Internet Archive (county histories) · Wikimedia Commons · Remarkable Ohio (historical markers)

The compilation is CC BY 4.0. Report a correction.

Cite this page as:

Cracked Buckeye, "Oldest towns in Ohio", https://crackedbuckeye.com/stories/oldest-towns/, built 2026-10-31, accessed [date].

One figure from it:

Cracked Buckeye, "Oldest towns in Ohio", https://crackedbuckeye.com/stories/oldest-towns/, built 2026-10-31, accessed [date]; Local history from Ohio History Connection.

How to cite · Report a correction · Built 2026-10-31