Colorful Foundation Appaloosas

The original village which eventually became known as Amherst was established/founded by pioneer settler Josiah Harris (who relocated to this area about 1818), although the original tiny village was first known only as "Amherst Corners" in the early-1830s. When the village-plat was officially recorded in 1836, it was simply named the "town plat of Amherst", but became "Amherstville" circa-1839, and was later changed to "North Amherst", until finally again simply 'Amherst' in 1909. (The original 1820s postal-name of the village's first post-office was "Plato"; and the village's post-office retained that postal-name into the 1840s, even after the local-government name of the village officially became 'Amherstville' by 1840.) The village is often said to have had its beginnings as early as 1812, because land which was settled by pioneer Jacob Shupe, in the "Beaver Creek Settlement" (about a mile north of the later village site), was eventually (at a much later time) included into the Amherst city-limits. However, the actual original Josiah Harris village-plat did not encompass Shupe's site (although Shupe's pioneering efforts within the township, which included constructing his own grist-mill/saw-mill and distillery, certainly added to the area's desirability for later pioneers to settle here). By the latter 1800's, Amherst acquired the title Sandstone Center of the World.