The story
Read it all →How Kingsville came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Kingsville.
Kingsville was originally called Fobesdale or Fobesville, and under the latter name was laid out in 1810.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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History · Kingsville
Kingsville’s post office opened in 1820, and 65% of its homes were built before 1940
Below: maps from 1906 on and old-book passages.
1820first post office
0on the National Register
65%homes built before 1940
5famous people
Quick answers
How Kingsville began
When was Kingsville founded?
1820
The Kingsville post office opened in 1820, the earliest record of the town by name.
2020 census: 824206 years
Founding year: the first Kingsville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Kingsville’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 Kingsville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Kingsville’s homes were built before 1938.On the map since 19064 editions of the USGS map, 1906 to 1994. Watch Kingsville change.Deep rootsA post office since 1820: 206 years of Kingsville.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Kingsville’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Kingsville’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.On the map
Kingsville on the map, 1906 to 1994
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kingsville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1906Conneaut 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 Kingsville.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Kingsville, 1878–1924
Passages that mention Kingsville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Ashtabula County, Ohio1878 · page 115Read the page →
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landed at the mouth of Ashtabula creek, and made their way to the interior as far as the present village of Jefferson. Here Mr. Warner selected lands embracing a part of the present village, while his companion made his settlement in what is now known as the township of Kingsville. At that time there was but one resident of the township of Jefferson, a man by the name of Mapes, who had previously settled upon a part of the same land, and had built a log house and cleared a few acres. Mr. Warner purchased his improvements and made provision for a future home, although before locating permanently he went back to
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History of Ashtabula County, Ohio1878 · page 154Read the page →
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Conneaut is the northeast corner township of Ashtabula County. It is bounded on the north by Lake Erie, on the south by the township of Monroe, on the east by a portion of the State of Pennsylvania, and on the west by the township of Kingsville and the lake. It is composed of township No. 13 of the first range (except an area of two miles in width from the southern portion thereof, which strip was cut off and annexed to the township of Monroe), and of No. 14 of the first range, being Conneaut gore. The township contains a surface of about twenty-five square miles. Its extreme northernmost point lies about sixty-eight
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History of Ashtabula County Ohio1924 · page 349Read the page →
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Kingsville Churches.—The first church association in Kingsville Township was that of the Congregational denomination, in 1810, the Rev. Samuel Crocker being its minister. It is to be supposed that the question of salary was not to be seriously considered by the ministers of that day,
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History of Ashtabula County Ohio1924 · page 352Read the page →
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Whisky Stills —(‘‘Pioneer’’, in Kingsville Tribune, August, 1889.) In the log cabin days of Kingsville there was no market for the little surplus grain that was raised, and, to put it into a more condensed form, that it might be shipped to Detroit or Buffalo, they felt it necessary to distill it into whisky. In 1823 there were three stills running within a radius of six miles of this place. One by a man named Ward, on the place now owned by Squire Ransom, in the east part of town; one by Smith Webster, at the foot of Stephen Sabin’s hill; and one by Enoch Stevens, in East
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
Kingsville, 1821 to 1906
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your albumFamous people
See all →5 famous people were born in Kingsville
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Kingsville’s history
What year was Kingsville founded?
The Kingsville post office opened in 1820, 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 Wikipedia, 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.