Monroe, Ohio history

According to local tradition, his family lived in the little house across the street until a part of this house was built in 1811.

Before 1812, Monroe was part of Granville Township.

The public square of Johnstown is called Bigelow Park and was set aside in 1813 by the town’s founder, Doctor Oliver Bigelow.

In 1815, a line was drawn through the center from east to west, and the northern half became Bennington Township.

His tombstone reads, “Doctor Oliver Bigelow, proprietor of Johnstown”. A post office opened on August 31, 1816 with Noble Landon as postmaster.

He died on November 5, 1817 and was buried in the Bigelow/Johnstown/Old Cemetery inside the Village.

As early as 1818, the population of the township was 591.

The Monroe Baptist Church was organized in 1819, approximately one mile north of Johnstown.

The Methodist Episcopal Church of Johnstown was founded by Russel Bigelow in 1820.

In 1830, they built a brick church at the cost of $600.

The First Presbyterian Church of Johnstown was founded by Joseph Matthews on July 15, 1837.

The Baptist Church of Johnstown was organized under F. R. Freeman in 1839.

They built a church in 1840.

They built a church in 1866 at a cost of $1,100.

Then the railroad rolled through the village on July 4, 1880, and its growth began.

A son of William was B. G. Ashbrook, who bought the Johnstown Independent newspaper in 1884.

The Johnstown Town Hall was dedicated in 1885.

It was moved later and became a granary. It was established in 1886.

The deed was dated April 2, 1808. It was built in 1889 with walls a foot thick.

In the 1890’s, a young cheese maker named Emil Frey created a gold crusted, soft ripening, spreadable cheese, which he named Liederkranz.

There was a Creek Post Office, probably in or near Monroe Township, because when it closed on July 15, 1899, its mail was transferred to Johnstown.

The deed was dated April 2, 1808. It was moved to its present location soon after 1900 and used for a short time to house stray animals until their owners could be found.

He was elected as the Licking County Representative to the Ohio Legislature in 1905.

There are many opportunities available for getting involved, including assisting with special events, decorating the 1910 Building’s window, assisting with archiving duties, and even becoming a Board of Directors member.

In 1912, the company was called Ashbrook, Johnson & Neely.

The underground curing cellars still remain, along with the small block office building that was built in 1915.

And if your not already aware, yes it was here in Monroe, that Emil Frey also invented Velveeta Cheese in 1923.

The Weisl family continued to operate the Monroe Cheese Company, until they sold the remainder of the operation to Borden in 1929.

During the 1930’s, as part of the creation of Crane Park, the wooden section of the factory was removed by the Monroe Improvement Association.

She was Mayor of Johnstown in the 1960’s.

1763), An article in the May 5, 1976 Johnstown Independent questions, however, whether Perkins, Stephens, and DeWolf are actually buried there.

He, too, died while in office on April 24, 1982.

In 1985, Dave and Kay Currens uncovered a skeleton while excavating for a pond on Mink Road.

While those tunnels have never been found, during excavation for the new bridge in 1995, contractors broke into a stone tunnel on the west side of the Ramapo.

The right side of this house was built by John McGarrah in the early 1800’s as a inn. It was this forgotten, yet preserved, feature that prompted the Masons to purchase the house in 2000.

The story of Billy Dragoo relates that he was captured in West Virginia in 1786 as a boy and brought through Ohio to an Indian Village near Detroit. It is now the present site of the Monroe Township Maintenance Facility and meeting complex, which was built in 2002.

The Johnstown branch of the Newark Public Library was in the back part of the building until the Mary E. Babcock Library was opened in 2006.

In 2018, the new Johnstown Monroe High School opened, as well as, a new Elementary School.