Hopedale, OH

In 2020, Hopedale had 920 residents in Green Township, Harrison County, Ohio. Phillip Delaney settled the area around 1800, and Cyrus McNeely later bought land, platted the village in 1849, and gave it the name Hopedale in 1851. The village incorporated in 1860. McNeely’s hopes centered on education: his Normal School grew into Hopedale Normal College, remembered as the first coeducational college in eastern Ohio. That school history is still woven into the village’s name and older buildings.

Hopedale also grew inside the coal country of eastern Ohio. Pittsburgh No. 8 coal lay beneath much of Harrison County, and the arrival of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad made it possible to move coal and local products. The Delaney House, a documented Underground Railroad stop in the county, adds another layer to the area’s history. Today, Hopedale’s post office, long-standing homes, local school system, and small industries sit among the hills and former mining land of Green Township. It remains a place where education, railroading, coal, and abolition-era stories meet on a village scale.