Rosedale 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 central Pike 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, and roughly west of the city of Columbus.

History

The Rosedale Post Office was established on June 3, 1830, with Captain Andrews as the first postmaster.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. 182. In 1832, he purchased of land, named the place "Rosedale Farms" after the post office, and opened a store at the intersection of Rosedale Road and Rosedale-Milford Center Road. Later, Darius Burnham laid out the community of Liverpool on land he owned near Rosedale, and the plat was recorded on May 18, 1836, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. From 1837 to 1838, Foster Griffin became the postmaster and moved the post office from the rural country into Liverpool. Soon after, the community changed its name to match the post office. The Rosedale Post Office was discontinued on October 14, 1867, re-established on January 17, 1870, then discontinued again on September 30, 1901. The mail service was then sent through the Mechanicsburg branch. In 1905, the Pike township

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

was built in the community, at a cost of $12,000. As of 1915, the community contained one general store, one blacksmith, and a population of 60. In 1964 Conservative Mennonite Bible School, a

Bible college A Bible college, sometimes referred to as a Bible institute or theological institute or theological seminary, is an evangelical Christian or Restoration Movement Christianity, Christian institution of higher education which prepares students for C ...

owned by the Conservative Mennonite Conference (now known as the Rosedale Network of Churches), purchased the former high school building and moved to Rosedale from Berlin, Ohio. The school was later renamed Rosedale Bible College. Also in the mid-1960s Conservative Mennonite Conference (now the Rosedale Network of Churches) moved its headquarters to the community.

Geography and topography

The community is located between the Spring Fork and main channel of the Little Darby Creek to the northwest of their confluence. This puts the community on the western edge of the Scioto Watershed. The area was originally a wetland of prairie grass and moisture tolerant trees, and now boasts rich and productive farmland of primarily soy beans, corn and wheat.

Economy

The town is the home of several denomination-wide agencies of the Rosedale Network of Churches, including Rosedale Bible College, Choice Books Great Lakes-Rosedale, and the administrative offices of the Conservative Mennonite Conference. The Conference's mission agency, Rosedale Mennonite Missions, was headquartered in Rosedale for several decades but relocated to

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

in 2015 and was subsequently renamed Rosedale International.Rosedale International website History section, https://rosedaleinternational.org/history/, retrieved 10 August 2021 Rosedale has one church, the Rosedale Free Will Baptist Church.

References

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