Editing Norwood, Ohio (section)

===Sharpsburg becomes Norwood===
In 1866, the first tracks of the [[Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad]] were completed, connecting Loveland with Cincinnati. The tracks ran from east to west through Sharpsburg and still exist in the same location today, parallel to the [[Ohio State Route 562|Norwood Lateral Expressway]] and passing under the Montgomery Road overpass. The village did not initially have a train station when the railway opened, but the possibility of passenger rail access to Cincinnati generated interest in developing a residential subdivision nearby.<ref name="Transportation in Norwood">{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohnhs2/transportation.html |title=Transportation (Omnibuses, Street Cars, Buses, Railroads, etc.) in Norwood, Ohio. |publisher=Norwood Historical Society |access-date=9 March 2016}}</ref> In 1868, two early developments were platted in the area north of the railroad. The first train station was established that same year.

In 1869, Sylvester H. Parvin, Col. Philander P. Lane and Lemuel Bolles purchased the William Ferguson farm north of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad tracks and platted an eighty-one-acre subdivision they called Norwood Heights. This was the first recorded use of the name Norwood in the area.  It is commonly believed that the person who came up with the name was Sarah Bolles, wife of Lemuel Bolles. In the 1894 book, ''Norwood, Her Homes and Her People'', it was stated that the name "Sharpsburg" was "not considered pretty enough for such a spot, and the suggestion of the Bolles' to call it Norwood (an abbreviation of Northwood) met with endorsement, and so it was that the suburb was christened anew."<ref name="How Norwood Got Its Name">{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohnhs2/history_name.html |title=How Norwood Got Its Name |publisher=Norwood Historical Society |access-date=9 March 2016}}</ref>

However, the origin of the name Norwood is commonly disputed. It is also stated that Mrs. Bolles's name for the 1869 Norwood Heights subdivision was inspired by [[Henry Ward Beecher]]'s popular 1869 novel ''Norwood: or, Village Life in New England''. Others have claimed Mrs. Bolles arrived at the name by combining "North Woods", in reference to Norwood being a wooded area north of Cincinnati.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dqULA6wNa_QC&pg=PA7 | title=Norwood | publisher=Arcadia Publishing | year=2006 | author=Mersch, Christine | pages=7| isbn=9780738540382 }}</ref>  In any case, the new name Norwood was popular enough that the ''Cincinnati Enquirer'' reported in 1870 that "the old town of Sharpsburg has been changed to Norwood" and the Sharpsburg post office was officially renamed Norwood the same year.<ref name="Historical Dates for Norwood, Ohio. 1870s">{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohnhs2/date1870s.html |title=Historical Dates for Norwood, Ohio. 1870s |publisher=Norwood Historical Society |access-date=12 March 2016}}</ref> By 1873, a second subdivision using the Norwood name, "The Heart of Norwood", was platted on 50-acres west of Montgomery Road at Maple and Elm Avenues. It was later referred to as "Old Norwood" after newer subdivisions using the name Norwood were built.<ref name="Historical Dates for Norwood, Ohio. 1870s" />