Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1827.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Mount Gilead’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mount Gilead is more historic than 93% of U.S. towns, #102 of 993 in Ohio. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its age lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Mount Gilead’s overall grade.
Ohio towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Ohio town has 2.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Mount Gilead’s 27.0 sits above most of its state (83% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 9 historic buildings outnumber those of 75% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±10.9 points). Two sources give 1824.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Mount Gilead’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
The first settler to Mount Gilead was Lewis Hardenbrook in 1817, though it was then called Whetstone and located in Marion County. In 1824, Judge Jacob Young drew out the village; the plan consisted of 80 lots and also included a public square. Several years later, in 1832, Henry Ustick added 70 lots to the village as well as an additional public square. The original public square was then referred to as the south square and the newer square, the north square. Charles Webster built the first cabin in the village in December 1824. He served as the first postmaster and operated the post office from the cabin, as well.
Passages that mention Mount Gilead, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Morrow County and Ohio1880 · page 317Read the page →
Read the text
center, by giving it a connection east with Mount Gilead. All that is now wanted to make a city, is for some enterprising individual to lay out the space between Mount Gilead and West Gilead into lots and streets ; it would soon build up. An incident which occurred in the vicinity of Gilead Station about forty-five years ago will serve as an interesting finale to this chapter. A couple
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
Mount Gilead, 1824 to 1971
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.
In 1824, according to Wikidata. Mount Gilead’s post office opened in 1827, and the census of 1850 counted 646 people here.
How does Mount Gilead rank for history?
Mount Gilead is more historic than 93% of U.S. towns, #102 of 993 in Ohio. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Mount Gilead?
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Morrow County Courthouse And Jail (listed 1974, the first). 9 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Mount Gilead?
33% of Mount Gilead’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.9 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1965.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (12), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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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