The area was first permanently settled in 1810, but the village was not laid out until 1812. One of the settlers, Judge Coulter, picked the most beautiful spot for a village with the intentions of laying out a village, and although he had no name planned his neighbors jokingly called it "Coulterville." Perrysville was originally called Freeport, and under the latter name was laid out in 1815. The present name honors Oliver Hazard Perry, remembered for leading American forces in a decisive naval victory at the Battle of Lake Erie. A post office called Perryville was established in 1820, and the name was changed to Perrysville in 1883.
Passages that mention Perrysville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Ashland County, Ohio1909 · page 47Read the page →
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The fact that Perrysville was on the old surrey maps as Freeport was owing to the fact that flatboats were built there, loaded and floated for the markets at New Orleans. The Blackfork was a larger stream then than it is uow making the town of Perrysville quite a town for flatboats. Larger boats however, were built at Loudonville, one of which left there with a cargo of sixty tons. The tonnage of the flatboats differed, usually ranging from twenty tons upward.
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History of Ashland County, Ohio1909 · page 177Read the page →
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Perrysville is the only town in Green township, and was laid out June 15, 1815, and was named Freeport. It was the second town founded in what is now Ashland county. The Coulters being very prominent people there, the town was locally known as Coultersville. Some years after its founding, the name of the town was changed from Freeport to Perrysville, in honor of Commodore Perry’s victory over the British on Lake Erie. In 1830, the town contained nine inhabitants, but in 1860 the number had increased to one hundred and thirty-five. A pottery plant was established there a few years since, which has
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History of the Ashland County Pioneer Historical Society1888Read the page →
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Perrysville, Ashland County, Ohio, June 14th, 1879. — By request of Pioneers of Perrysville, a meeting was called to take place on the 14th inst.
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jutting part being put on as referred to above. It stood at the base of a bold b'uff, on the bank of the Black fork, near where the mill-dam now is, about half a mile southeast of the village of Perrysville, and furnished a safe retreat fot the neighbors of Mr. Coulter, when endangered by the savages. As soon as this block-house was completed, the following persons occupied it: Thomas Coulter and family, Allen Oliver and. family.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Perrysville, 1820 to 1882
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.
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 (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
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