Rome, Ohio: The River Town That Founded Two Cities

The small Ohio River village of Rome, originally called Stout's Post Office after its founder William Stout, had an outsized role in American settlement history. William's son Elisha Stout grew up on this riverbank and went on to become one of the founders of both Omaha, Nebraska and Denver, Colorado, helping to plant two of the most consequential cities of the western plains. The Rome site also carries an even older layer: it was previously called Adamsville and served as the first county seat of Adams County from seventeen ninety-seven to seventeen ninety-eight, with a log courthouse and jail that made it briefly the center of legal authority for an enormous stretch of southern Ohio. The town faded as commerce moved inland, but its place in the lineage of western expansion makes this quiet riverbank worth a second thought.