Amity is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in northeastern Canaan Township, Madison County,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, United States. It is located at the intersection of Plain City-Georgesville Road and Amity Pike Road, between Plain City and West Jefferson.Rand McNally, ''The Road Atlas '06'', Chicago: 2006, 80

History

In 1817, Uri and Lorenzo Beach, two brothers, settled in the area.J. A. Caldwell,
Caldwell's Atlas of Madison County, Ohio
', Condit, Ohio, 1875, Pg. 10. Before their arrival,

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

was the only business in the area, but Uri Beach built a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

along the

Big Darby Creek Big Darby Creek is a scenic river located in northwestern central Ohio, and an important tributary to the Lower Scioto River. The river's major tributary is the Little Darby Creek. The river runs from its source near the Champaign- Union cou ...

and later added a carding machine.

Spinning Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

and

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

were also done at the factory. This factory provided all of the lumber for northern Madison County's earliest frame buildings. About 1826, Lorenzo opened a general store of his own.Bryan, Chester E.,
History of Madison County, Ohio
', B.F. Bowen & Company, Inc.,

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, 1915, Pg. 174. The West Canaan Post Office was established on January 16, 1829; and as of 1831, the community also contained a hotel and a blacksmith shop. A small community began to form around these businesses, so the Beach brothers purchased a tract of land and laid out the community of West Canaan on April 1, 1831. The name was recorded at the London Courthouse on January 3, 1833. In November 1834, additional land was added to the town's corporation limits, and the town and post office names were changed to Amity. In 1834, Lorenzo opened a second store in another part of town. As of 1835, the town contained two dry good stores, a woolen factory, a sawmill, a

distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

, a comb factory, and a number of blacksmith and minor mechanical trades shops. At that time, Amity was more of a trading point than Plain City. But a combination of the factory's dam being declared a nuisance and torn down and a trunk-line for the

Atlantic and Great Western Railroad The Atlantic and Great Western Railroad began as three separate railroads: the Erie and New York City Railroad based in Jamestown, New York; the Meadville Railroad based in Meadville, Pennsylvania (renamed A&GW in April 1858); and the Franklin ...

being laid through Plain City in 1851 caused most of the business to be transferred to the latter. By 1875, Amity had one dry goods store, one wagon and

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop, one church, and one physician. There was a

windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

manufacturing company based in Amity during the 1880s and 1890s.T. Lindsay Baker,
A field guide to American windmills
', University of Oklahoma Press, 1985, , Pg. 335 The Amity Post Office was discontinued on July 31, 1901, and the mail service was sent through the Plain City branch. As of 1915, the village contained only one store and one blacksmith.

Demographics

As of 1875, the population was about 100; and in 1915, it was only about 35.

References

{{Authority control Unincorporated communities in Madison County, Ohio Unincorporated communities in Ohio