Hartford (Croton), OH

People around here often call Hartford “Croton,” and that parenthetical is useful: the village is in Licking County’s Hartford Township, with Croton as the postal name. The village was platted on September 20, 1824, by Ezekiel Wells and Elijah Durfey; Durfey became the township’s first justice of the peace. Hartford’s post office first used the name Granby, then changed to Croton in 1843 because Ohio already had another Hartford post office. The naming wrinkle is part of the place’s identity, not a map error.

Village history sits right on the street: the town hall was built in 1857, the village incorporated in 1866, and the old account of Hartford mentions three hotels and two dry-goods stores in its heyday. Later, U.S. Route 62 and State Route 3 bypassed the village, and the train stopped bringing visitors. Today the local map is village hall, council, sewer and wastewater, parks and streets, and the Croton mailing address. The local scoop is simple: Hartford is the old village, Croton is the name you may see on the envelope, and both belong to the same Licking County story.