The story
Read it all →How Darbyville came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Darbyville.
Darbyville was laid out in 1826. The village takes its name from nearby Big Darby Creek.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick answers
How Darbyville began
When was Darbyville founded?
1826
The Darbyville post office opened in 1826, the earliest record of the town by name.
First census: 233 in 18702020 census: 186200 years
Founding year: the first Darbyville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Darbyville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Darbyville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 293 in 2000; 186 people lived here in 2020.On the map since 19114 editions of the USGS map, 1911 to 1970. Watch Darbyville change.Deep rootsA post office since 1826: 200 years of Darbyville.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Darbyville’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Darbyville’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.People over time
Darbyville, census by census
Peaked at 293 in 2000; 186 people lived here in 2020.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Darbyville’s Wikipedia page.
On the map
Darbyville on the map, 1911 to 1970
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Darbyville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1911Era sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Darbyville.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Darbyville in 1906
Passages that mention Darbyville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Pickaway County, Ohio1906Read the page →
Read the text
The corporation of Darbyville was platted July 27, 1826. It was laid out on land formerly entered, surveyed and patented by Cornelius Baldwin on the west side of Darby Creek and near the center of the present township of Muhlenberg. A store for the sale of merchandise was opened by Samuel Scott in 1826 or 1827. A year later a grocery was opened by
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
HISTORY OF PICKAWAY COUNTY, OHIO AND REPERESENTATIVE CITIZENS1906 · page 149Read the page →
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In the spring of 1878 a branch organiza- - tion of the African M. E. Church was perfected at Darbyville. For a number of years services were held at the schoolhouse in the village of | Darbyville by John Dickinson. The pulpit was ‘supplied for a time by Rev. R. H. Morris, of Circleville.
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HISTORY OF PICKAWAY COUNTY, OHIO AND REPERESENTATIVE CITIZENS1906 · page 210Read the page →
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cleville and Adelphi road, an act for whose incorporation passed the General Assembly on February 24, 1848; the next year, the Circleville, Darbyville and London Turnpike Company was incorporated but it was 20 years before the road was completed. The Circleville and Kingston corporators met, for the first time on August 6, 1851; in six years,
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History of Pickaway County, Ohio1906Read the page →
Read the text
early settlers obtained flour and meal from a mill on Darby Creek in Jackson township, about seven miles from the present town of Darbyville or from a mill on the upper part of the same stream, in Franklin County. The first of these mills was built about 1802 or 1803, and the other a little later. The first orchard planted in Muhlenberg township was
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
Darbyville, 1826 to 2000
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1826Post officeThe Darbyville post office opens
- 20th century
- 1907Post officeThe Darbyville post office closes
- 1911
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey - 21st century
- 2000CensusPopulation peaks at 293
By decade
Darbyville, decade by decade
2015
2013
2013
2012
2004Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Darbyville
Nobody well known was born in Darbyville itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
P
Patti HarrisonAmerican actress and comedian · b. 1990
Places that used to be
Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds
Darbyville had its own post office from 1826 to 1907.
Darbyville
18201920today
Gone or out of use
Darbyville Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Darbyville
Darbyville
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Darbyville’s history
What year was Darbyville founded?
The Darbyville post office opened in 1826, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
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 (5), Wikipedia, 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 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.