Peoria is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Liberty Township, Union 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. It is located at , along Raymond Road, about 1.75 miles south of

Raymond Raymond is a male given name. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷᛁᚾᛗᚢᚾᛞ ( ...

and 6.5 miles northwest of Marysville. A post office was established in Peoria on September 26, 1872; it was closed on August 11, 1967. The mail service is now sent through the Columbus regional mail sorting facility, and distributed through the Marysville and

local post offices.

Origins

The town was originally platted by Joseph K. Richey in 1870. His original plat included 28 "town lots" most of which were 66' by 165' in size (in the parlance of the day, 4 poles wide and 10 poles deep), 1/4 acre per lot. The town was established at the junction of the newly built Marysville-Newton Road (Raymond was then called Newton) and the

Atlantic and Great Western Railroad The Atlantic and Great Western Railroad began as three separate railroads: the Erie and New York City Railroad based in Jamestown, New York; the Meadville Railroad based in Meadville, Pennsylvania (renamed A&GW in April 1858); and the Franklin and ...

. By the early 1880s, the Ohio Central Railroad (which became the

Toledo and Ohio Central Railway The Toledo and Ohio Central Railway (T&OC) was a railway company in the U.S. state of Ohio from 1885 to 1952. In 1928 it was leased by the New York Central System The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great ...

) had built a northwest-southeast line that crossed the southwest-northeast A&GW line. The Peoria railroad station, situated at the grade crossing of the two rail lines, was the only depot in Liberty Township that could accommodate both freight and passengers. The station also featured a water tank and a

coaling tower A coaling tower, coal stage, coaling plant or coaling station is a facility used to load coal as fuel into railway steam locomotives. Coaling towers were often sited at motive power depots or locomotive maintenance shops. In the early years of ...

to service the steam engines of the time. Remnants of the foundations of these structures are still visible today. Largely because of the railroad station and the post office established there in 1872, Peoria quickly became a commercial center, featuring stores, churches, warehouses, hotels, small businesses—including a barber shop and a mill—and a public school. The population of the village was estimated at 150 in 1910.

Peoria today

The commercial enterprises of the past in Peoria no longer exist. The school and the churches are also gone. With the closing of the post office in 1967, the community became primarily residential, with commerce flowing to nearby Raymond and Marysville. Population today is estimated to be roughly the same as in 1910—around 150.

References

{{Authority control Unincorporated communities in Union County, Ohio Unincorporated communities in Ohio