Originally named Ferrara, the town was focused on farming along the Sunday Creek Valley. That would change when the Atlantic and Lake Erie Railway completed the Moxahala tunnel in 1879. By 1880, Joseph Rodgers sold over 8,000 acres along Sunday Creek to the Ohio Central Coal Company. With New York capitalists investing heavily in the coal camp, the town was soon renamed Corning. A post office has been in operation at Corning since 1880.
Peaked at 1,628 in 1920; 488 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Corning’s Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Corning, 1883–1902
Passages that mention Corning, cut from the printed page as they were published.
1883 history perry county, ohio1883 · page 152Read the page →
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Every bridge, county and railroad, was washed out between Moxahala tnnnel and two miles south of Corning, with the exception of the depot bridge at Corning, and it was saved by the torrent of water breaking over the track above the depot and running down the east side.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Corning is our "oil city." It was laid out in 1878 by Joseph Rogers. Rendville was platted the next year by Capt. T. J. Smith and W. P. Rend.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
1883 history perry county, ohio1883 · page 223Read the page →
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Corning has a post-oflice, telegraph oflice, station-house, one Jarge union school-house, newspaper, two churches, two hotels, several attorneys, physicians, dry-good stores, clothing establishments, drug stores, meat stores, boarding houses, groceries, bakeries, millinery stores, blacksmith shops, shoe shops, billiard rooms, saloons, etc. It had, according to the census of 1880, a population of two hundred and seventy ; but the town had just commenced, and nearly all its growth has been since that date. Its population is now estimated at from twenty-five
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
topics, the Ames Limestone has its horison on the tops of the hills. The Sundaycreek valley, which is the deepest in the neighborhood, cuts its way through the Great Coal Vein north of Corning. Corning, itself, is at the level of the Upper Freeport Coal. The oil is found in the Berea sand, which has been found to have an average thickness of about 30 feet.
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
Corning, 1873 to 1920
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Corning. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1911New Lexington 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 Corning.
Every building
Corning, building by building, 1893–1926
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1893Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewCorning-mercer-hotel1908, 1908
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Corning’s page.
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), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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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