London was incorporated by an act of the Legislature, bearing date February 10, 1831, to take effect and be in force from and after April first of that year. For many years the officers elected by the people consisted of a President, Recorder, and five Trustees.
For quite a period after the town was laid out, its growth was decidedly slow, and after it had attained the growth of thirty years or thereabouts,it seemed to remain almost entirely in status quo. It is said that an Irishman who visited London about that time, after sauntering leisurely through its few streets, and hearing not the sound of a hammer, or the buzz of a single notable industry, is said, in the very depth of disgust, to have exclaimed: "Be dad, this is the first town I ever saw that was entirely finished!" Neither was the village at an early period very attractive. A venerable doctor of Southwestern Ohio, on his first visit here, gave offense to some of the residents, by recommending that they get their gardens lathed and plastered, to keep out the frogs. This visit of the doctor's, then a traveling circuit preacher in the itinerancy of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was made in the spring of the year, just after a protracted rainy season.
After remaining for a number of years in a state of torpidity, London began to arouse itself, and grow until the spirit of enterprise, eventually, made it what it is to-day, one of the most substantial, bustling, wealthy, and enterprising rural communities in the country. Its broad streets, substantial business buildings and beautiful residences give it an air of solidity possessed by few towns of its size in the State.
The first impetus given the town in way of improvement was the construction of the Jefferson, South Charleston & Xenia Turnpike; next came the building of the Columbus & Xenia, now the Little Miami Division of the P., C. & St. L. Railroad, in 1848-49, and that of the Columbus & Springfield road, now the I. B. & W. Railroad, each of which gave an additional impetus. The growth of London may be said to have been gradual, but constant and healthy. If any one year exceeded another in the line of improvement, that of 1869 might with safety be singled out as a year in which a greater sum of money was expended for private building purposes. That year, about $70,000 was expended in building, and, among the buildings erected, the most important was Buff Block, on the corner of High and Main streets, by Robert Boyd, Lohr & Clark, and Mrs. Eliza Chrisman, at a cost of about $40,000.
Probably in this connection it would not be out of place to mention the names of Dr. Aquilla Toland and Maj. Richard Cowling, than whom none were more closely identified with the growth, progress and interests of the town. All of the public improvements of the day found in these men warm friends and advocates. Among the gifts of Maj. Cowling to public enterprises in London were the donation of the original tract of land of Oak Hill Cemetery, and by will setting apart a large tract of land adjoining, as an extension of the grounds for perpetual use; the building of the soldiers' monument on the grounds; the donation of the old homestead on West Main street, together with about four and a half acres of land to the town as a public park. The Madison, formerly Cowling House, was also built by him.
The population of London, as given by the census of the periods below named, is as follows: 1840, 297; 1850, 512; 1860, 1,111; 1870, 2,066; 1880, 3,067.