The Villages

Russells Point grew from the land leased in October 1891 by John Russell, who was born in 1847 near the original spring-fed Indian Lake, where his parents farmed near present-day Lake Ridge and O’Connors Point on the east side of the lake. After marrying and starting a family on his family’s land, Russell leased seven acres of marshy, forested land extending into the Lewistown Reservoir on the lake’s southern edge from the Bureau of Public Works for 15 years at an annual rent of $48, built a white frame farmhouse near the present west end of Sandy Beach Bridge, and established farming and fishing before leaving in 1894 after assisting fishermen who had traveled long hours to reach the reservoir. Russells Point was incorporated in 1928. Lakeview developed west of the Lewistown Reservoir after the Lewistown Reservation Indians signed a final treaty in 1831 and were removed to Kansas. An 1875 atlas of Logan County showed only two houses there, but within six years enough settlers had arrived for the village, first written as Lake View, to be platted, and by 1895 two hundred citizens signed incorporation documents and Elisha Houchins became the first mayor. Lakeview’s residents used their proximity to Indian Lake in many ways, including Elisha Reed’s first boathouse and Henry Porter’s first sawmill, with timber cut in winter at ice level and hauled to the mill. Later factories operated there, and Lakeview became a regular stop on the Toledo and Ohio Central Line between Marysville and St. Marys and on the Ohio Electric Interurban Railroad between Springfield and Lima, giving easy access to Indian Lake from many directions. In 1912 Lakeview issued $2,600 in bonds to provide power for the electric railroad, and it remains one of the few villages to operate its own electric power system. Visitors arriving on the Interurban could get a haircut, enjoy a meal, have a drink at one of five saloons, and stay in one of six hotels, and in 1982 Emil Davis, who had come to Lakeview with his parents in 1908, wrote that Lakeview was a village where friendly neighbors live and raise their families.

Russells Point, Ohio · United States