Thomas Bull, a Methodist minister, along with his wife, four sons and one of his two daughters moved to Central Ohio from Vermont in 1812. His second daughter, Chloe Brevoort and her family, joined the rest of the Bull family about a year later. The family first settled in the Worthington area while they searched for land to purchase at a suitable price.
In 1813, Bull purchased 600 acres along the Columbus-Worthington Pike from John Rathbone. Before the Adams administration patented the land to Rathbone, it had been part of the United States Military Lands -- land which was set aside to be given to Revolutionary War soldiers as both a pension and as a payment for their service in the War of Independence. Rathbone was a New Yorker who had never set foot in Ohio. Nonetheless, he owned a quarter section of Clinton Township which was named for George Clinton, the vice president in the
Jefferson administration.
Once Thomas Bull and his family settled the land and began to farm, they were faced with a mighty problem. Namely, there was no one else around - - nowhere they could easily go to buy shoes, have blacksmith or carpentry work done-- they were isolated. This isolation made the management of a 600 acre farm difficult at best.
To attract "mechanics" to the area, Alanson, Thomas Bull's oldest son, built houses and shops along what is now High Street, and gave them to anyone with a skill who would stay and practice their craft. The idea caught on and after a time, there was a little hamlet along High Street centered on what today we call Oakland Park. Since the hamlet was nearly in the center of Clinton Township, it became known as Clintonville. It grew steadily until the area got its own mail service and post office on September 13, 1847-- Clintonville's birthday!
