Gettysburg is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

in Darke County,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, United States. The population was 513 at the 2010 census.

History

Gettysburg was founded by natives of

Adams County, Pennsylvania Adams County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 103,852. Its county seat is Gettysburg. The county was created on January 22, 1800, from part of York County, and was named for the secon ...

, in the late 1820s. When the settlement was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...

ted by John Hershey in 1842, the community was named for Gettysburg, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of Adams County. The community's first church was a congregation of the

Presbyterian Church in the United States of America The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) was the first national Presbyterian denomination in the United States, existing from 1789 to 1958. In that year, the PCUSA merged with the United Presbyterian Church of North Americ ...

, established in 1847 or 1848, while the first school was built in 1850. By the 1860s the village had an active business sector including general stores, shoe shops, cabinet makers, wagon/carriage shops, harness shops, tanning yards, cooperages, blacksmiths, tinning shop, tailors, physicians, a hotel, grain elevator, flouring and saw mills. Several saloons opened but soon failed. Around 1863 the Richmond and Covington Railroad (becoming part of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1921) constructed a rail line that ran through Gettysburg. Early in the morning of April 30, 1865 Abraham Lincoln's

Funeral Train A funeral train carries a coffin or coffins (caskets) to a place of interment by railway. Funeral trains today are often reserved for leaders, national heroes, or government officials, as part of a state funeral, but in the past were sometimes ...

passed through the village on its journey to his burial place in Springfield, IL. The railroad turned the town into a busy shipping point for agricultural products. For example, in 1907 one hundred and sixty-eight rail cars of tobacco valued at over one million dollars were shipped out. Also that year 398 carloads of grain valued at $300,000 were shipped from the town's grain elevators. The rail line was abandoned in the 1980s and a portion of the railway corridor is now used for the Tecumseh Trail Multi-use Pathway, a popular recreation trail. In 1922 Ira Petersime, a local businessman and entrepreneur, invented the electric poultry incubator. In short time Petersime and his son, Ray, built a manufacturing plant in Gettysburg and began shipping their incubators and other hatchery equipment all over the country and abroad. Their business grew to be one of the largest manufacturers of poultry incubators in the world. In 1933 a local historian commented that “the Petersime Incubator Co. put Gettysburg on the map of the world”. The business closed in 2006.

Geography

Gettysburg is located at (40.113609, -84.493188). According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

, the village has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

2010 census

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2010, there were 513 people, 170 households, and 127 families living in the village. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

was . There were 194 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 97.5%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 0.4%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.2% Asian, 0.2% from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 1.8% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

or Latino of any race were 0.6% of the population. There were 170 households, of which 44.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.3% were married couples living together, 12.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 7.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 25.3% were non-families. 20.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.02 and the average family size was 3.44. The median age in the village was 32.7 years. 32.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 8% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.3% were from 25 to 44; 23.8% were from 45 to 64; and 9.6% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 49.1% male and 50.9% female.

2000 census

As of the

of 2000, there were 558 people, 187 households, and 149 families living in the village. The

was 1,267.7 people per square mile (489.6/km²). There were 201 housing units at an average density of 456.6 per square mile (176.4/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 96.24%

, 0.72%

, 0.36% Native American, 0.90% Asian, and 1.79% from two or more races.

or Latino of any race were 0.72% of the population. There were 187 households, out of which 44.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.5% were married couples living together, 15.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.8% were non-families. 16.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.98 and the average family size was 3.29. In the village, the population was spread out, with 34.8% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 17.4% from 45 to 64, and 9.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 93.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.6 males. The median income for a household in the village was $36,250, and the median income for a family was $43,750. Males had a median income of $29,773 versus $21,875 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the village was $15,247. About 7.2% of families and 10.7% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 17.9% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

References

{{Authority control Villages in Darke County, Ohio Villages in Ohio