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Gettysburg, Ohio
Village
Houses on Main Street
Houses on Main Street
Location in Darke County and the state of Ohio.
Location in Darke County and the state of Ohio.
Country United States
State Ohio
County Darke
Township Adams
Area
 • Total 0.44 sq mi (1.14 km2)
 • Land 0.44 sq mi (1.13 km2)
 • Water 0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2)
Elevation
1,007 ft (307 m)
Population
 (2020)
 • Total 463
 • Estimate 
(2023)
461
 • Density 1,057.08/sq mi (407.99/km2)
Time zone UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
 • Summer (DST) UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code
45328
Area code(s) 937, 326
FIPS code 39-29974
GNIS feature ID 2398957

Gettysburg is a village in Darke County, Ohio, United States. The population was 463 at the 2020 census.

History

Gettysburg was founded by natives of Adams County, Pennsylvania, in the late 1820s. When the settlement was platted by John Hershey in 1842, the community was named for Gettysburg, the county seat of Adams County. The community's first church was a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 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 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 village has a total area of 0.44 square miles (1.14 km2), all land.

Demographics

Historical population
Census Pop.
1870 228
1880 292 28.1%
1890 274 −6.2%
1900 246 −10.2%
1910 320 30.1%
1920 375 17.2%
1930 418 11.5%
1940 440 5.3%
1950 451 2.5%
1960 443 −1.8%
1970 526 18.7%
1980 545 3.6%
1990 539 −1.1%
2000 558 3.5%
2010 513 −8.1%
2020 463 −9.7%
2023 (est.) 461 −10.1%
U.S. Decennial Census

2010 census

As of the census of 2010, there were 513 people, 170 households, and 127 families living in the village. The population density was 1,165.9 inhabitants per square mile (450.2/km2). There were 194 housing units at an average density of 440.9 per square mile (170.2/km2). The racial makeup of the village was 97.5% White, 0.4% African American, 0.2% Asian, 0.2% from other races, and 1.8% from two or more races. Hispanic 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 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.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Gettysburg (Ohio) para niños

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