Minford, OH

Minford sits on the border of Harrison and Madison townships in northeastern Scioto County, among the rolling hills of the Appalachian and Unglaciated Allegheny plateaus. The community began as Harrisonville in 1859, then became Minford in 1917 when the C&O Railroad needed to avoid a duplicate name along its line. The new name honored a local Minford family, turning a railroad problem into a piece of family history that still appears on every map.

The transportation story is only one layer. The Little Scioto River runs alongside the community, and nearby Shawnee State Park and Forest give the surrounding foothills their local nickname, the Little Smokies. School life has its own history too, from the old Sunshine School and Harrisonville School to today’s Minford Local School District. Minford is a place where the name, the hills, the river, and the school district all point to the same corner of southeastern Ohio. That chain gives the community several doors into its own story.