Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Austinburg yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Austinburg is a census-designated place in northern Austinburg Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States. It lies at the intersection of State Routes 45 and 307. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 505, out of a total population of 2,197 in Austinburg Township. Austinburg was laid out ca. 1800 by Judge Eliphalet Austin, and named for him. Austinburg is home to a large white wooden rocking chair, measuring approximately 25 feet tall.
Austinburg was established in 1800. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 516 to 505 (-2%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
On the map
Austinburg on the map, 1905 to 1970
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Austinburg. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1905Ashtabula sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Austinburg.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Austinburg, 1878–1924
Passages that mention Austinburg, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Ashtabula County Ohio1924 · page 235Read the page →
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The town of Austinburg was located on a girdled and partly cleared road, laid out by the first party of surveyors who traversed that territory, in 1798. As immigration from the East continued and family after family settled in other small colonies, a few miles removed in all directions, it soon became necessary to establish means of communication with these settlements, and to that end other roads were laid out.
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History of Ashtabula County, Ohio1878 · page 95Read the page →
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The late Miss Betsey M. Cowles, in her speech delivered at the three-quarter centennial celebration of the settlement of the township of Austinburg, June 5, 1875, gave a vivid account, in her pathetic style, of how the good and pious pioneer women of Austinburg went to work to raise the means with which to pay for that steeple, which we will copy : “ Seventy-five years ago to-morrow night the first woman who came to this town was the wife of Sterling Mills. She and her husband and Mr. Joseph Case were making their way to the ‘Austins’ camp.’ But darkness overtook them
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History of Ashtabula County, Ohio1878 · page 188Read the page →
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We have stated that the site of the village of Austinburg was located on the road which had been girdled and partly cleared by the first surveyors, in 1798. Other roads, however, soon became necessary, as the arrival of families from various directions, and the settlement of other neighboring towns, required the opening of these lines through the w'ilderness. It will be remembered that after the first settlement of the town no wagon had made its appearance, and that the only access was on horseback or by boat. It was during the first winter, that of 1800, that the men who remained at the camp, while Judge Austin returned, cut a road
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History of Ashtabula County Ohio1924 · page 171Read the page →
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continued without a minister until 1812, when Father Erskie, of Jefferson, visited and preached to them. Their number soon increased by conversions and immigrations. The location of Father Thomas and his son, Adnah, were on the hill now called ‘Bunker Hill’, at the junction of the Austinburg and South Ridge roads. The class members held their meetings in homes and schoolhouse until 1822, when, with the aid of the friendly neighbors, they erected, near the Benham homes, a meeting house of hewn logs, which was the first house built solely for public worship in Ashtabula Township.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Austinburg, 1800 to 1905
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (9), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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