The Treaty of Greenville of 1795 secured the land between the Muskingum and Great Miami Rivers, and Congress provided in 1796 that Revolutionary War veterans would receive some of this land. In 1800, President John Adams gave Reverend John Dunlap the rights to about 4000 acres in what later became Sharon Township. He received this grant "for Military Service and for the society of United Brethren for propagating the Gospel among the Heathen."
In 1802, Dunlap sold this land to Jonas Stansberry, an agent for a group of settlers from Connecticut and Massachusetts who founded Worthington. During the nineteenth century, Riverlea's land was a part of the outlying farms of Worthington. Part of this area was called the Maynard Farm. Moses Maynard had bought it in 1806.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Jacob and Clara Artz owned a farm upon whose land the Village of Riverlea would eventually be built. The Van De Boe-Hager Company of Cleveland secured a lease to this property in 1923. During the next sixteen years, about twenty-five dwellings were built
The original inhabitants of Riverlea were concerned about unregulated construction, and they voted to incorporate the Village on January 17, 1939.
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