Sidney is a city in Shelby County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 20,589 at the 2020 census. It is approximately 36 miles (58 km) north of Dayton and 100 miles (160 km) south of Toledo, and is a part of the Dayton metropolitan area. The city is named after English poet Philip Sidney, and many of Sidney’s elementary schools are named after famous writers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and John Greenleaf Whittier. Sidney was the recipient of the 1964 All America City Award. In 2009, it was the subject of the documentary film 45365.
At a Glance
- County: Shelby County
- County seat of Shelby County
- State: Ohio
History of Sidney
Sidney, named after Sir Philip Sidney, a well known poet and member of British Parliament, was originally a 70 acre (280,000 m2) parcel of land located along the west side of the Great Miami River. This land was donated by Charles Starrett to be used as the site of a new town designated to be the county seat of Shelby County. The area around Sidney was once the richly forested hunting ground of the Shawnee and Miami Indian nations. This fertile area was developed as agricultural lands over time.
The construction of the Miami Erie Canal between 1825 and 1837 connected Sidney in a north, south direction with the major trade centers in Ohio. In addition to opening the first significant "outside" trade for Sidney, the construction of the canal attracted an influx of settlers to the area. From the 1840s to 1913, canal boats carried Shelby County’s products to Cincinnati or Toledo. Sidney was crossed by the Miami and Erie Canal’s Sidney or Port Jefferson Feeder Branch. Before railroads came to Sidney, the canal provided most transportation, as roads were unpaved and not usable in all seasons. Part of the canal remains south of Water Street.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Sidney, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.