South Lebanon, Ohio

South Lebanon holds a quiet distinction: it is the oldest town in Warren County. The settlement was laid out in seventeen ninety-five as part of the Symmes Purchase, and its first residents called it Deerfield, because it anchored Deerfield Township, then the chief settlement in the area.

The name change came with the railroad. A post office opened under the name Deerfield Village in eighteen twenty-eight, and the name changed after the railroad was built through the area. Then in eighteen seventy-one, acknowledging the town's position just south of the county seat, the post office became South Lebanon. The old name Deerfield faded, but the town's founding date did not. What began as a frontier clearing in seventeen ninety-five grew into a small city along the Little Miami River corridor, older than the county it calls home.