Blue Ball is a town in the southwestern part of the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 that was established in 1820 at the intersection of the Dixie Highway

Dixie Highway

The Dixie Highway was a United States automobile highway, first planned in 1914 to connect the US Midwest with the Southern United States. It was part of the National Auto Trail system, and grew out of an earlier Miami to Montreal highway. The final result is better understood as a small network of...

 (later U.S. Highway 25). "The Blue Ball hung at the intersection of where the Historic Toddle Inn is located.... This was located just several hundred feet from what is said to be State Route 122." and what became State Route 122

Ohio State Route 122

In Ohio, State Route 122 is a state highway which runs from the Ohio-Indiana state line in Preble County east of Eaton, Ohio to State Route 48 near Lebanon, Ohio a distance of . The Route once ran past State Route 48 to US Route 42. This section was renamed "Old State Route 122", but this is no...

. It was originally called "Guilford" after Nathaniel Guilford, a prominent state politician at the time. Blue Ball straddles the line between Butler

Butler County, Ohio

Butler County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of 2010, the population was 368,130. Its county seat is Hamilton. It is named for General Richard Butler, who died in 1791 fighting Indians in northern Ohio. Butler's army marched out of Fort Hamilton, where the city of...

 and Warren

Warren County, Ohio

Warren County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. The population was 212,693 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is Lebanon. Warren County was erected May 1, 1803, from Hamilton County, and named for Dr...

 Counties and was in Lemon Township, Butler County, Ohio

Lemon Township, Butler County, Ohio

Lemon Township is one of thirteen townships in Butler County, Ohio, United States. Located in the northeastern part of the county, it includes most of the city of Monroe and now exists as six disconnected pieces because of annexations by Monroe and Middletown...

 and Franklin Township, Warren County, Ohio

Franklin Township, Warren County, Ohio

Franklin Township, one of the eleven townships of Warren County, Ohio, United States, is in the northwest corner of the county. It is the most populous township in the county: the 2000 census found 27,294 people there, down from 27,510 in 1990; of this total, 9,947 lived in the unincorporated...

.

According to local legend, the town was on a busy stage coach stop between Dayton

Dayton, Ohio

Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

 and Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

 along the Dixie highway, but kept being passed by because most stage coach drivers were illiterate and could not read the sign with the town's name on it. So, in 1862, the town council changed the municipal name to reflect a landmark, a blue-colored metal sphere that was suspended above the intersection of the two highways at the heart of town. A modern successor to that blue ball still hangs on Dixie Highway. It was granted a post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

, since closed, in 1844.

Blue Ball was annex

Annexation

Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...

ed by nearby Middletown

Middletown, Ohio

Middletown is an All-America City located in Butler and Warren counties in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Formerly in Lemon, Turtlecreek, and Franklin townships, Middletown was incorporated by the Ohio General Assembly on February 11, 1833, and became a city in 1886...

in 1993.