Ashville is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

Pickaway County, Ohio Pickaway County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 58,539. Its county seat is Circleville, Ohio, Circleville. Its name derives from the Pekowi ban ...

, United States. The population was 4,621 at the 2020 census. Ashville is located 17 miles south of

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, the capital city of the U.S. state of Ohio * Columbus, Georgia, a city i ...

and 8 miles north of Circleville.

History

Long before the American settlement of Ohio, Hopewell Native Americans inhabited the lands that became Ashville. The Snake Den Mounds were constructed a few miles outside of the present day village and were believed to have been built prior to C.E. 500. The site was examined in the late 1890s by Warren K. Moorehead, where he found artifacts of the ancient civilization and skeletal remains. Centuries later the primary inhabitants were the

Pekowi Pekowi was the name of one of the five divisions (or bands) of the Shawnee, a Native American people, during the 18th century. The other four divisions were the Chalahgawtha, Mekoche, Kispoko, and Hathawekela. Together these divisions formed th ...

band of the

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

. This band of natives was the name sake for Pickaway County. The Pekowi people lived in the area for much of the 18th Century, but eventually left as America pushed westward.

Early American settlement

Ashville sits on land that had been acquired by

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

in 1763, following the defeat of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

, but was prohibited to be settled by white settlers. When the United States claimed the region following the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, the area became part of the

Congress Lands East of Scioto River The Congress Lands East of Scioto River was a land tract in southern Ohio that was established by the Congress late in the 18th century. It is located south of the United States Military District and Refugee Tract, west of the Old Seven Ranges, ...

and was first surveyed in 1799 as part of the Scioto River Base Surveys. CV Patent 0030-015

Richard Staige (or Stage) Sr., born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, first settled the land that would become Ashville in 1808, after migrating from Virginia. Following his death in 1811, his sons Richard Jr. and William would each build 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 ...

on the family's land, opening them the following year. Richard Jr. bought the 77.57 acres they inhabited from the Chillicothe Land Office on July 6, 1816.

In 1837, Richard Jr. sold his distillery to Mahlon Ashbrook. By 1845, Ashbrook had also built a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

on Walnut Creek and owned a large store that was run by his sister Iva "Ivy" and her husband Daniel Kellerman, who went on to be the first postmaster of the town, which was named Ashbrook at the time. That same year, Ashbrook helped lay out the town with the building of 25 new houses. In 1853, Ashbrook, was voted to the Railroad Committee for the speedy construction for rails to cover Ross, Pickaway, and Franklin Counties. The route of the railroad (like the canals before it) had a great effect on the success of the development of the area. Ashbrook manufactured barrels for the mill and distillery, and also had some outside trade in that line. The Ashbrook businesses failed in 1855, following his endorsement of a promissory note for a friend. When the friend failed to pay, Ashbrook was in debt for tens of thousands of dollars and lost much of his wealth to his creditors. Ashbrook migrated west, leaving part of his family behind. Like most of America, the town suffered a setback due to the

Panic of 1857 The Panic of 1857 was a financial crisis in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. Because of the invention of the telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission ...

. The growth of the town was further hampered by the onset of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

Railroad boom

The construction of the Scioto Valley Railroad through Ashville, under the supervision of lead engineer

Isham Randolph Isham Randolph (March 25, 1848 in Clarke County, Virginia – August 5, 1920) was an American civil engineer who is best known as the chief engineer of the Sanitary District of Chicago during the construction of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Ca ...

, began in 1874. This caused a new flurry of both population and economic growth, including the building of two new

grain elevator A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

s. Railroad employees, most notably bridge builders, settled in the northern reaches of Ashville in what has become Little Chicago. A year later, in 1875, the post office was reestablished after it had been closed following the shuttering of the Ashbrook businesses and a

train station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing suc ...

was opened in 1876. Finally, after nearly 70 years following the original settlement, the village was incorporate as Ashville in the Spring of 1882. In 1890, the population of Ashville reached 430 citizens and the area's first

volunteer fire department A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respo ...

was created, as well as

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

s were built throughout the village. That same year,

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

acquired the Scioto Valley Railroad following its demise. Over the next ten years, the village population grew at a rate of more than 50%. This was aided by the establishment of major businesses, which included the Scioto Valley Canning Factory that was built in 1899. The factory, which canned

sweet corn Sweet corn (''Zea mays'' convar. ''saccharata'' var. ''rugosa''), also called sweetcorn, sugar corn and pole corn, is a variety of maize grown for human consumption with a high sugar content. Sweet corn is the result of a naturally occurring rec ...

, at its peak, employed 540 employees who were able to produce upwards of 200,000 cans of corn per day. Dozens of other businesses sprang up as well to accommodate the growth, including

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 ...

s, a

lumber yard A lumber yard is a location where lumber and wood-related products used in construction and/or home improvement projects are processed or stored. Some lumber yards offer retail sales to consumers, and some of these may also provide services s ...

, a hotel, and even an

opera house An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

. In 1904, Scioto Valley Traction Company opened a railway in town that powered their engines by electricity using a

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a track (r ...

. This line sent passenger and freight traffic from

to Chillicothe. The line operated until September 1930. The depot remains on West Main Street. Around 1910, the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...

(which later became

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

) was built on the western edge of town. With the construction several

gandy dancer Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers in the United States and Canada, more formally referred to as ''section hands'', who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines. The British ...

s settled in Little Chicago. The workers were primarily of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and Bulgarian descent according to Census records. The population of the town had ballooned to over 970 by that time. Following Ashville's quick growth, it became the second most populated area in Pickaway County.

Small town status

Though the rail lines remained operational, the population growth of the village slowed. Over the next three decades the population grew by only 129 citizens. Additionally, the reduction of growth was compounded by the effects of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. A population spike happened again in the 1950s and 1960s as Ashville became a residential town when new homes started popping up west of Long Street. Though many businesses had fizzled out, new large employers began to target Ashville including Columbus Industries which opened their plant in 1970. During this time Ashville also became the hub of a newly formed school district when Teays Valley Local School District built their high school in 1963 and housed their district offices within the village. The next major growth step happened in 1994 when home builders, such as M/I Homes, built the first modern

subdivisions Subdivision may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Subdivision (metre), in music * ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009 * "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2) * ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005 * "Subdivisions" (song), by Rus ...

in Ashville. The two major subdivisions were Ashton Village and Ashton Woods, which are located on the northside of town. Both sites together brought in nearly 100 new homes.

Continued growth

Since 1990, Ashville remains one of the fastest growing areas in Pickaway County. Several new housing developments, apartments, and condominiums have been built and the expansion of

Rickenbacker International Airport Rickenbacker International Airport is a civil-military public airport south of downtown Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, near Lockbourne, Ohio, Lockbourne in southern Franklin County, Ohio, Franklin County, Ohio, United States. The south end of the ...

Global Logistics Park and the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

Intermodal Terminal, that was built in 2008, have created thousands of jobs for the area.

Geography

Ashville is located in the

Scioto River The Scioto River ( ) is a river in central and southern Ohio more than in length. It rises in Hardin County, Ohio, Hardin County just north of Roundhead, Ohio, flows through Columbus, Ohio, where it collects its largest tributary, the Olent ...

Valley and has an elevation of 715 feet (218 m) above sea level. The village is located in the

till plain Till plains are an extensive flat plain of glacial till that forms when a sheet of ice becomes detached from the main body of a glacier and melts in place, depositing the sediments it carried. Ground moraines are formed with melts out of the glac ...

-area of Western Ohio and borders the

Appalachian Plateau The Appalachian Plateau is a series of rugged dissected plateaus located on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian Mountains are a range that run from Nova Scotia in Canada to Alabama in the United States. The Appalachi ...

. The area is generally viewed to be a fertile region with gently rolling hills created by

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

s. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the village has a total area of , all of it land.

Glacial activity

The area on which present-day Ashville sits was effected by three

glacial A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

periods. Those periods were

Pre-Illinoian The Pre-Illinoian Stage is used by Quaternary geologists for the early and middle Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods of geologic time in North America from ~2.5–0.2 Ma (million years ago). North America As the oldest stage in ...

Glaciation,

Illinoian The Illinoian Stage is the name used by Quaternary geologists in North America to designate the Penultimate Glacial Period c.191,000 to c.130,000 years ago, during the late Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian), when sediments comprising the Illinoian G ...

Glaciation, and

Wisconsin glaciation The Wisconsin glaciation, also called the Wisconsin glacial episode, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex, peaking more than 20,000 years ago. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleated ...

. * Pre-Illinoian Glaciation - The first impact of glaciers in Ashville occurred about 780,000 years ago during the

Pleistocene epoch The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

. The glacier, which stopped right at Ashville's location, dammed the pre-glacial

Teays River The Teays River (pronounced taze) was a major preglacial river that drained much of the present Ohio River watershed, but took a more northerly downstream course. Traces of the Teays across northern Ohio and Indiana are represented by a network ...

just south of the village, which created Lake Tight. The former Teays River would go on to become a significant

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

for the area. * Illinoian Glaciation - Approximately 190,000 to 130,000 years ago, a glacier once again covered the area. Much of the effects of this glacier were covered by the subsequent Wisconsin glaciation that started 100,000 years later. * Wisconsin Glaciation - The last ice to be in the area began 35,000 years ago and ended approximately 12,000 years ago. The Laurentide Ice Sheet stretched into Ohio with the Lake Huron lobe being the most prominent major lobe. The Scioto minor lobe, which helped create the Scioto River, stretched over the area and created the modern day terrain.

Rivers, creeks, and brooks

The Village is part of the Walnut Creek watershed. Walnut Creek is a tributary of the Scioto River that forms the southern border of Ashville and runs into the river approximately 2.5 miles southwest of the village. The Walnut Creek is intersected by the Little Walnut Creek approximately .25 miles southeast of the village and by Mud Run, a brook that runs through the western fringes of the village, 1.7 miles southwest.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2020, there were 4,529 people, 1,891 households, and 1,320 families living in the village. The median household income for the village was $60,293.

2010 census

As of the

of 2010, there were 4,097 people, 1,598 households, and 1,100 families living in the village. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 1,731 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 96.7%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.0%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.4% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 0.1% from other races, and 1.4% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino people of any race were 1.4% of the population. There were 1,598 households, of which 41.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.7% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 15.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 7.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 31.2% were non-families. 25.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 3.05. The median age in the village was 32.8 years. 29.3% of residents were under the age of 18; 9.8% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 29.6% were from 25 to 44; 21.9% were from 45 to 64; and 9.5% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 48.5% male and 51.5% female.

2000 census

As of the

of 2000, there were 3,174 people, 1,243 households, and 872 families living in the village. The population density was . There were 1,337 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 97.83%

, 0.19%

, 0.32% Native American, 0.06% Asian, 0.19% from other races, and 1.42% from two or more races.

or Latino people of any race were 1.07% of the population. There were 1,243 households, out of which 40.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.5% were

living together, 13.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.8% were non-families. 24.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.03. In the village, the population was spread out, with 29.6% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 33.8% from 25 to 44, 17.7% from 45 to 64, and 9.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.3 males. The median income for a household in the village was $40,778, and the median income for a family was $47,092. Males had a median income of $35,236 versus $22,231 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the village was $16,645. About 6.3% of families and 9.5% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 11.5% of those under age 18 and 6.0% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Ashville is governed by the mayor–council system of government. It consists of a mayor and six council members at-large, all elected by village residents. Since 1985, elected offices are non-partisan and serve four-year terms.

Mayor

The mayor is responsible for overseeing the village's police department, appointing and managing village employees, presiding over Mayor's Court, and overseeing the village's finances. In addition to independent duties, the mayor is the president of the Council, but does not vote unless there is a tie. The current mayor of Ashville is Steve Welsh who is the first elected mayor following the death of Charles (Chuck) Wise who was the longest serving mayor, having served in the capacity for 22 years.

List of mayors

As of 2024 * 1882–1884; 1886: W. R. Julian * 1885: Charles Steward * 1887–1889: S. D. Fridley * 1890–1896: W. M. Miller * 1897–1900: A. S. Longenbaugh * 1901–1902: E. S. Workman * 1903–1905: G. A. Hook * 1906–1907; 1932–1935; 1938–1939: E. E. Frunfelter * 1908: H. J. Bond * 1909–1911; 1926–1927: E. E. Smith * 1912–1919: G. W. Morrison * 1920–1921: John Wilson * 1922–1923: A. E. Reichelderfer * 1924–1925: G. T. Peters * 1925; 1928–1929: J. L. Spindler * 1930–1931: S. D. Fridley * 1936–1937: Harry Margulis * 1940–1943: Fred J. Hines * 1944–1945: Tom R. Acord * 1946–1947: Harry A. Litten * 1948–1951: Elmer Malone * 1952–1954: Raymond R. Lindsey * 1955–1962: Richard B. Bozman * 1963–1967: Charles W. Morrison * 1968–1974: Harold Hartley * 1975: James Hopper * 1975–1979: Max Cormany * 1980–1982: Albert Johnston * 1982–1992: Marvin Hicks * 1992–1995: Peggy Pritchard * 1995–2000: Jane Cline * 2000–2023: Charles K. Wise * 2023: Nelson Embrey II * 2024–present: Steve Welsh

Village council

The village council holds legislative authority over the municipality and performs no administrative duties. The body passes ordinances and resolutions to manage and control the village's development, finances, and property. As of 2023, the council members are Randy Loveless ( President pro tempore), Roger L. Clark, Colton Henson, David Rainey, and Matt Scholl.

Education

Schools

Teays Valley Local Schools

Prior to 1963, Harrison Township and the village had operated Ashville Harrison School which graduated its last class in 1962, and had 44 students. The district combined with two neighboring districts in the Fall of 1962 to form Teays Valley. The district currently operates three schools within the village's boundaries, which include Teays Valley High School, East Middle School, and Ashville Elementary.

Brooks-Yates School

Brooks-Yates was a school operated by Pickaway County Board of Developmental Disabilities that provided services to Pickaway County students with

developmental disabilities Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions, comprising mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, espe ...

. The school was moved to Teays Valley's main campus in Ashville from Circleville in 2016. The school ultimately closed in 2021, following a decline in enrollment.

CSCC – Pickaway County Center

A regional campus of Columbus State Community College was once located at Teays Valley High School. As of 2022, the campus is no longer active.

Library

Ashville has a public library, located on Long Street. The Floyd E. Younkin Branch is part of the Pickaway County Library system and was opened in 1999 after local business owners, the Younkin family, donated funds to open the location.

Arts and culture

Churches

Five Christian churches operate within the village limits. The churches that are currently operating are Ashville Church of Christ in Christian Union, Heritage Church of Christ, First English Lutheran Church, Village Chapel Church, and Zion United Methodist Church. First English Lutheran was the founding member of the Ashville Food Pantry which is located on Long Street at the village's center.

Community Park

Ashville has one public park which is called the Ashville Community Park. The 10-acre park was deeded to the community on April 4, 1921, with the stipulation that the village used it for athletic and park purposes, by a community club that had purchased the tract a year earlier for $3,000. The club also built an indoor shelter house before donating the land. Shortly after the acquisition, the village built a baseball field with concrete bleachers and a quarter-mile

cinder track A cinder track is a type of race track, generally purposed for track and field or horse racing, whose surface is composed of cinders. For running tracks, many cinder surfaces have been replaced by all-weather synthetic surfaces, which provide g ...

for community and school use. Ashville went on to install a playground, an outdoor shelter house, pickleball courts, basketball courts, restrooms and a

gazebo A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or Gun turret, turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden, or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands. In British English, the word is also used for a tent-like can ...

. The park is host location of the annual Fourth of July Celebration and Viking Festival.

Fourth of July Celebration

Ashville's

Fourth of July Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing th ...

Celebration has taken place since 1929, and annually brings thousands of people to the community. Hosted by the Ashville Community Men's Club, the five-day event includes concessions,

rides Rides may refer to: * Amusement rides * Bridle paths, or rides, tracks through woodland for horse riders Music * ''Rides'' (album), by British band Reef * The Rides, an American band Television * ''Rides'' (American TV series), an automotive ...

, a queen contest, a daily

fish fry A fish fry is a social event containing battered or breaded fried fish. It usually also includes french fries, coleslaw, macaroni salad, lemon slices, tartar sauce, hot sauce, malt vinegar and dessert. Some Native American versions are cooked ...

, musical entertainment, parades, and a community church service. The carnival is held at Ashville Community Park, at the village's center. Fireworks cap the celebration on Independence Day night and are fired from the Teays Valley High School property.

Viking Festival

The Spring festival, which started in the mid-2000s, is a two-day festival that pays homage to ancient Scandinavian culture. Hundreds of people gather at the Ashville Community Park where reenactors take up the lifestyle of the

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

and enjoy music, food, and handcrafted goods of the time period. A

Viking ship replica Viking ship replicas are one of the more common types of ship replica. ''Viking'', the first Viking ship replica, was built by the Rødsverven shipyard in Sandefjord, Norway. In 1893 it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Chicago in the United ...

is located at the center of the camp along with

jousting Jousting is a medieval and renaissance martial game or hastilude between two combatants either on horse or on foot. The joust became an iconic characteristic of the knight in Romantic medievalism. The term is derived from Old French , ultim ...

and

swordsmanship Swordsmanship or sword fighting refers to the skills and techniques used in combat and training with any type of sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to an ...

exhibitions. The festival was on a temporary hiatus in 2020 and 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In 2022, the festival returned with the addition of a

beer garden A beer garden (German: ''Biergarten'') is an outdoor area in which beer and food are served, typically at shared tables shaded by trees. Beer gardens originated in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital city, in the 19th century, and remain co ...

Museums

Ashville Depot

The Ashville Depot is a former, and the only remaining, train station for the Scioto Valley Railway. Built in 1876 and closed in 1976, this weatherboard building was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1980. It is located at the intersection of Madison and Cromley Streets. The building acts as a meeting place and railroad museum. It is currently owned and operated by the Ashville Community Men's Club.

Ohio's Small Town Museum

In 1978, the Ashville Area Heritage Society opened what became Ohio's Small Town Museum in a former

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

theater, known by locals as the Rocky Dreamland Theatre. The project was spearheaded by longtime village leader Charlie Morrison and researcher Bob Hines. The museum is home to local memorabilia including a 17-star

United States flag The national flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag or the U.S. flag, consists of thirteen horizontal Bar (heraldry), stripes, Variation of the field, alternating red and white, with a blue rectangle in the Canton ( ...

, a

buoy A buoy (; ) is a buoyancy, floating device that can have many purposes. It can be anchored (stationary) or allowed to drift with ocean currents. History The ultimate origin of buoys is unknown, but by 1295 a seaman's manual referred to navig ...

from the sunken

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

, USS ''Maine'', and the still-working traffic light that was invented by resident Teddy Boor in 1932. The museum claims that the traffic light is the world's oldest traffic light, a claim that the village itself supports. This claim was again supported by

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

by naming it the Oldest Functioning Traffic Light.

Old Town Jail Museum

The Old Town Jail Museum is located at the corner of Cherry and Long Streets. Built in 1886, the building served as police headquarters until 1988. In 2021, the village established a museum that pays tribute to the village's criminal justice history. Other parts of the building are used for Council chambers and the village's streets department.

Notable residents

* Harley H. Christy,

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

hero and Vice Admiral *

Champ Henson Harold R. "Champ" Henson III (born June 1, 1953) is an American former professional football player who was a fullback for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes. ...

, former

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

player * John Holmes,

pornographic actor A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts on video that is usually characterized as a pornographic film. Such videos tend to be made in a number of distinct ...

Ron Hood Ronald Edward Hood (June 2, 1969 – April 19, 2025) was an American Republican legislator in the Ohio House of Representatives. He represented the 78th District. He also represented, at various times, both the 57th and the 91st districts. Hood ...

, politician and 2022 Ohio gubernatorial candidate * William Ashbrook Kellerman, mycologist, journal founder, explorer and photographer *

Seth Mosley Seth David Mosley (born October 17, 1987) is an American Christian musician and record producer, who plays Christian pop and Christian rock. He was the frontman for the Christian alternative rock band Me in Motion. Mosley was awarded the Song ...

, Christian music singer and producer *

, Chicago and Panama Canal civil engineer * Brian Stewart, politician

References

External links

Village website
{{authority control Villages in Pickaway County, Ohio Villages in Ohio