Kirkpatrick is an unincorporated village

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in northern Scott Township

Scott Township, Marion County, Ohio

Scott Township is one of the fifteen townships of Marion County, Ohio, United States. The 2000 census found 521 people in the township.-Geography:Located in the northeastern part of the county, it borders the following townships:...

, Marion County

Marion County, Ohio

Marion County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 66,501. Its county seat is the city of Marion and is named for General Francis "The Swamp Fox" Marion, an officer in the Revolutionary War....

, 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...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The ZIP code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

 assigned to Kirkpatrick by the United States Postal Service

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

 is 43302 — the same as Marion

Marion, Ohio

Marion is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Marion County. The municipality is located in north-central Ohio, approximately north of Columbus....

. Kirkpatrick is the location of the Scott Township Hall. The current population of Kirkpatrick is less than 200.

Geography

Kirkpatrick is located at 40°68'868" North, 83°00'852" West (40.68868, -83.00852), at the junction of State Route 98 and Morral-Kirkpatrick Road in Marion County Ohio. Kirkpatrick is assigned to Range 15 of Scott Township according to the Congress Lands

Congress Lands

The Congress Lands was a group of land tracts in Ohio that made land available for sale to members of the general public through land offices in various cities, and through the General Land Office...

 Survey of Ohio.

History

Kirkpatrick was founded in 1832 by Marturen Latimbra, who named the settlement Letimberville after himself. Initially, it was thought that Letimberville would prosper, given that it was located along the well traveled Columbus

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

-Sandusky

Sandusky, Ohio

Sandusky is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Erie County. It is located in northern Ohio and is situated on the shores of Lake Erie, almost exactly half-way between Toledo to the west and Cleveland to the east....

 Pike (now State Route 98

Ohio State Route 98

State Route 98 is a north–south state highway in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. Its southern terminus is at the State Route 47/State Route 423 concurrency in Waldo, and its northern terminus is at State Route 61 in Plymouth....

). Despite establishing a town plat, and selling lots for the community, the promise of Letimberville failed to live up to its founder’s aspirations after it was by passed by the railroads, and Letimbra left in search of better opportunities.

Letimberville did attract farmers who relied on the community as a home for basic commerce and a center of religion. The greatest percent of population in the community were followers of the Methodist Episcopal

Methodist Episcopal Church

The Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, was a development of the first expression of Methodism in the United States. It officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the first bishops. Through a series of...

 faith, the community having one of three churches attended to by Rev. Jeremiah Crabb Monnett. Methodism was so much a part of the community that for many years the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WTCU) enjoyed great participation in the community until the early 1960s.

In the late 19th century, the community changed its name to Kirkpatrick. In the early 1920s, when the Scott Township School System consolidated its system into a modern facility, it was built in Kirkpatrick. For many years in the 1930s and 1940s, students could attend Kirkpatrick School from the first grade until eleventh grade, after which students attended neighboring systems in order to meet State of Ohio standards for graduation. The Scott Township Consolidated School System was merged into the Ridgedale Local School System (one of three county consolidated systems in Marion County to emerge in the 1950s). The Kirkpatrick building was closed, and eventually demolished.

In 1942, the United States government took a sizable portion of Scott, Grand Prairie

Grand Prairie Township, Marion County, Ohio

Grand Prairie Township is one of the fifteen townships of Marion County, Ohio, United States. The 2000 census found 1,609 people in the township.-Geography:Located in the northwestern corner of the county, it borders the following townships:...

, and Marion

Marion Township, Marion County, Ohio

Marion Township is one of the fifteen townships of Marion County, Ohio, United States. The 2000 census found 44,908 people in the township, 9,590 of whom lived in the unincorporated portions of the township.-Geography:...

 townships for the construction of the Scioto Ordnance Plant

Scioto Ordnance Plant

The Scioto Ordnance Plant was an ammunitions and bomb making facility built in Marion County, Ohio by the United States Army in 1942. The plant operated until 1945 when production wound down. Also built adjacent was the Marion Engineering Depot which was authorized in the summer of 1942...

. This effectively cut the population nearby and dependent on Kirkpatrick by one half, and led to its eventual decline as a social and commercial center.

In the late 1990s, the community contracted with Del-Co Water Company of Delaware, Ohio

Delaware, Ohio

The City of Delaware is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County in the United States state of Ohio. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816. It is located near the center of Ohio, is about north of Columbus, and is part of the Columbus, Ohio Metropolitan Area...

 for pressurized water service.

In the winter of 2006, swamps in the area surrounding the community received media attention from the Columbus Dispatch and WCMH television because of flooding concerns and similar issues south and east of the community.

Sources

• Miller, Larry L. Ohio Place Names. Indiana University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-253-32932-9
• Leggett Conway & Company, The History of Marion County Ohio. Leggett, Conway & Company, Chicago, Illinois. 1883