Neighbor was a Prominent Name Among the Settlers

The new settlers who included some 60 other migrants, found homes in a number of log cabins the 64 years before had been built by Delaware Indians under Chief Netawawes.

From the number of Neighbors among the settlers the tiny community first became known as Neighbortown a name that was retained until when in 1827 it was plotted and renamed New Comerstown.

The name change coincided with the advent of the Ohio Canal and the removal of the last of the Indians from Tuscarawas county. Within 13 years the village had increased in size to a population of 270.

In the 1850’s the coming of the Steubenville and Indiana Railroad (later merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad) brought increased prosperity and by 1900 the population stood at well over the 1,000 mark.

By 1895 the village had its first major industrial concern the James B. Clow & Son plant, which moved there after its New Philadelphia plant was burned to the ground.

The Oxford Bank, now part of the National Bank of Dover, has come 12 years earlier, almost at the same time that the combined city hall and opera house was built, later to be completely remodeled in 1946.

With its first telephone installed in 1896 and the first electric service provided in 1807 Newcomerstown’s proudest moments prior to 1900 came through operation of its Central Ohio District Fair, which drew attendances reaching as high as 9,000 in one day.