The Village of South Vienna...a short history 

The village was originally platted by John H. Dynes (1799-1849) in 1833, and he gave a plat of 32 lots to the village. At that time, the National Road had been surveyed but not yet constructed in this area. The road was finally completed in 1837, although it was opened through Vienna probably in 1834. Toll gates were placed on this thoroughfare about ten miles apart and tolls were collected until 1883. 

      In 1904 another plat was added by Charles Arbogast on the east side of East Street south of the present park. In the same year John Goodfellow platted an addition of 12 lots in the southwest corner of the village.

       Vienna was the original name of the village named for Vienna, Austria. The name was then changed to Vienna Crossroads in 1840 because of a town with a similar name in Trumbull County and this name was retained until 1909 when the residents of the town felt they had outgrown its country name. This is when the village changed its name to the present name of South Vienna.

     Vienna was and the village still is, the center of a farming community and trade with the farmers was its most important activity in the early days. The early settlers with few exceptions, were descendants of Scotch-Irish and Dutch settlers from Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina.  

 South Vienna circa 1900. Photos courtesy of Ron Shoemaker.