Granville, Ohio

Granville is a village in Licking County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,946 at the 2020 census. The village is located in a rural area of hills, known locally as the Welsh Hills, in central Ohio. It is east of Columbus, the state capital, and west of Newark, the county seat.

The village began as a settlement by European-Americans of Welsh descent. The Buxton Inn (1812), the Granville Inn (1924), Bancroft House (1834) and Bryn Du Mansion are local landmarks.

History

Pre-Columbian cultures

Granville is the location of the prehistoric Alligator Effigy Mound, built by the indigenous people of the Fort Ancient culture, between 800 and 1200 CE, more than four hundred years before European contact. It may be an effigy of the underwater panther featured in Native American mythology. The mound is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The area has evidence of Indigenous cultures. Less than five miles from the Alligator Effigy Mound are the Newark Earthworks, associated with the earlier Hopewell culture of roughly 100 BCE to 500 CE.

Pioneer settlers

Granville was not settled by European Americans until 1805, but the first house was built in 1801 by John Jones, a Welshman born in New Jersey. He erected a small hut with his wife and paved the first street in Granville, calling it Centerville Street. Mr. Jones's close friend Mr. Patrick Cunningham built the second cabin in the township the next spring. Because there were not enough students to fill it, only the main floor was used for educational purposes; the basement served as a market, and a Masonic fraternity used the upper floor.

Granville Academy / Doane Academy: Built in 1827 by the Congregational Church, Granville Academy was initially open to both males and females, but by the time it was incorporated by the Ohio Legislature in 1836, it served only women. The academy closed in 1927 due to low enrollment, and the school building now houses Denison University's administrative offices.

Temperance

The Temperance Movement, a social and religious movement against the consumption of alcohol, had many supporters in Granville. Jacob Little, a Congregationalist pastor in Granville from the late 1820s to 1866, was a leading advocate for temperance. The Granville Women's Temperance League would organize public demonstrations, petitions, and educational campaigns to raise awareness about the harmful effects of alcohol.

Granville's pro-temperance stance played a role in the lynching of Carl Etherington, a 17-year-old Anti-Saloon League agent who was murdered in Newark, Ohio, after taking part in several saloon raids. On July 8, 1910, Granville's mayor, Dr. E.J. Barns, tasked Etherington and at least 18 other hired agents with executing search and seizure warrants for illicit saloons in Newark, Ohio. Despite this, the meeting took place on April 27 of that year, and once again, anti-abolitionist townspeople retaliated. Large mobs gathered to egg and stone the lecturers, and even shaved the tails and manes of the horses belonging to the abolitionist group.

The central village is situated among three prominent hills. College Hill is to the north. Sugarloaf is a prominent hill and park at the west end of Broadway. Mt. Parnassus is another prominent hill and residential area at the east end of Broadway. A short distance south of the village center is the Raccoon Creek flood plain with the creek running from the west to east.

Demographics

2010 census

As of the census of 2010, there were 5,646 people, 1,441 households, and 1,017 families living in the village. The population density was . There were 1,554 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 91.9% White, 2.1% African American, 0.1% Native American, 3.6% Asian, 0.6% from other races, and 1.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.7% of the population.

There were 1,441 households, of which 36.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.3% were married couples living together, 7.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.4% had a male householder with no wife present, and 29.4% were non-families. 25.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.05.

The median age in the village was 22 years. 18.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 38.7% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 12.1% were from 25 to 44; 21.4% were from 45 to 64; and 9.6% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 46.3% male and 53.7% female.

2000 census

As of the census The district receives strong performance rankings from the Ohio Department of Education Located in the village is the Granville Christian Academy serving K-12 students. Also, there are several private preschools.

thumb|upright|Swasey Chapel at Denison University

Denison University

On a hill overlooking the village is the campus of Denison University, founded in 1831 as the Granville Theological and Literary Seminary, originally affiliated with the Northern Baptist Convention. Today, Denison is a private, residential, non-sectarian liberal arts college with a student body of about 2,300 and a faculty of 235. The school is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is certified by the Ohio Board of Regents to grant Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees. 74% of the student body comes from out of state, including representatives from forty countries. The Homestead at Denison University is a residential student intentional community focusing on environmental sustainability. Swasey Chapel is the iconic campus structure. Completed in 1924, the chapel is named in honor of Ambrose Swasey, a benefactor to the college and prominent Cleveland inventor and businessman.

The history of Granville has been interwoven with that of the college for nearly two centuries. Denison faculty and staff make up an important segment of the village's population, and student patronage is central to many village businesses. Granville residents may take advantage of many university facilities, such as the athletic center, free of charge. The college has recently embarked on a number of in-town purchases, including the Granville Golf Club and the Granville Inn.

Notable people

Hubert Howe Bancroft, an American historian and ethnologist
Ernest DeWitt Burton, an American biblical scholar and president of the University of Chicago
Paul Carpenter, a minor league baseball player
Edward Andrew Deeds, inventor and industrialist
Edmund Burke Fairfield, American minister, educator and politician in the U.S. state of Michigan.
Lottie Estelle Granger, educator
Marie Harf, political commentator, former Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications to U.S. Secretary of State
Ellen Hayes, astronomer and mathematician
Woody Hayes, a graduate of and football coach for Denison University and coach at Ohio State University
George Jones, co-founder of the New York Times
Rob Mounsey, composer and arranger
Lea Ann Parsley, Olympic silver medalist in the women's skeleton at the 2002 Winter Olympics
Marcus Aurelius Root, leading daguerreotypist and author
Alan Schaaf, founder of Imgur, an image sharing website
Brian Unger, named one of Entertainment Weeklys "100 Most Creative People in Entertainment" in 1998
Willard Warner, a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War
Scott Wiper, writer and director