Corning

History

Originally named Ferrara, the town was focused on farming along the Sunday Creek Valley. That would change when the Atlantic and Lake Erie Railway completed the Moxahala tunnel in 1879. By 1880, Joseph Rodgers sold over 8,000 acres along Sunday Creek to the Ohio Central Coal Company. With New York capitalists investing heavily in the coal camp, the town was soon renamed Corning. A post office has been in operation at Corning since 1880. In 1884, the town witnessed an Irish Catholic Feud between local parish Priest Father Bernard O’Boylan and saloon owner Andy McDevitt. Known as the Corning Church War, the feud gained national attention and grew Corning’s reputation. After several mine strikes during the early 1890s, Corning served as the unofficial site of “insurgency” against the leadership of the newly formed United Mine Workers of America. The incident at the Mercer Hotel represented the “High Water Mark of the Color Line in Ohio,” establishing a boundary between acceptable and unacceptable segregation of African Americans across the state.

Geography

Corning is located along Sunday Creek. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,589
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  1,396
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,149
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  1,135
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  1,073
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,020
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  1,014
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,010