Gettysburg 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 ...

in Darke 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. The population was 463 at the 2020 census.

History

Gettysburg was founded by natives of

Adams County, Pennsylvania Adams County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 103,852. Its county seat is Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Gettysbu ...

, in the late 1820s. When the settlement was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted by John Hershey in 1842, the community was named for Gettysburg, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Adams County. The community's first church was a congregation of the

Presbyterian Church in the United States of America The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) was a Presbyterian denomination existing from 1789 to 1958. In that year, the PCUSA merged with the United Presbyterian Church of North America. The new church was named the United ...

, established in 1847 or 1848, while the first school was built in 1850. By the 1860s the village had an active business sector including general stores, shoe shops, cabinet makers, wagon/carriage shops, harness shops, tanning yards, cooperages, blacksmiths, tinning shop, tailors, physicians, a hotel, grain elevator, flouring and saw mills. Several saloons opened but soon failed. Around 1863 the Richmond and Covington Railroad (becoming part of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1921) constructed a rail line that ran through Gettysburg. Early in the morning of April 30, 1865, Abraham Lincoln's

Funeral Train A funeral train carries a coffin or coffins (caskets) to a place of interment by railway. Funeral trains today are often reserved for leaders, national heroes, or government officials, as part of a state funeral, but in the past were sometimes ...

passed through the village on its journey to his burial place in Springfield, IL. The railroad turned the town into a busy shipping point for agricultural products. For example, in 1907 one hundred and sixty-eight rail cars of tobacco valued at over one million dollars were shipped out. Also that year 398 carloads of grain valued at $300,000 were shipped from the town's grain elevators. The rail line was abandoned in the 1980s and a portion of the railway corridor is now used for the Tecumseh Trail Multi-use Pathway, a popular recreation trail. In 1922 Ira Petersime, a local businessman and entrepreneur, invented the electric poultry incubator. In short time Petersime and his son, Ray, built a manufacturing plant in Gettysburg and began shipping their incubators and other hatchery equipment all over the country and abroad. Their business grew to be one of the largest manufacturers of poultry incubators in the world. In 1933 a local historian commented that “the Petersime Incubator Co. put Gettysburg on the map of the world”. The business closed in 2006.

Geography

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 land.

Demographics

2010 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 2010, there were 513 people, 170 households, and 127 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 194 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 97.5%

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 ...

, 0.4%

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 ...

, 0.2% Asian, 0.2% from other races, and 1.8% 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 of any race were 0.6% of the population. There were 170 households, of which 44.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.3% 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, 12.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 7.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 25.3% were non-families. 20.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.02 and the average family size was 3.44. The median age in the village was 32.7 years. 32.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 8% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.3% were from 25 to 44; 23.8% were from 45 to 64; and 9.6% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 49.1% male and 50.9% female.

2000 census

As of the

of 2000, there were 558 people, 187 households, and 149 families living in the village. The population density was . There were 201 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 96.24%

, 0.72%

, 0.36% Native American, 0.90% Asian, and 1.79% from two or more races.

or Latino of any race were 0.72% of the population. There were 187 households, out of which 44.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.5% were

living together, 15.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.8% were non-families. 16.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.98 and the average family size was 3.29. In the village, the population was spread out, with 34.8% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 17.4% from 45 to 64, and 9.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 93.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.6 males. The median income for a household in the village was $36,250, and the median income for a family was $43,750. Males had a median income of $29,773 versus $21,875 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 $15,247. About 7.2% of families and 10.7% 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 17.9% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

References

{{Authority control Villages in Darke County, Ohio Villages in Ohio