Washington Township

 

There is little information about Washington Township to be found, so this blog will be short. 

Isaac Prior is credited with being the first white settler in the area, arriving in 1799, and erecting the first log home. Surnames of some of the early settlers include Boggs, Hart, Slack, Lehue, Sturtz, and McConnell. It was Gen. Robert McConnell who eventually relocated south of Muskingum County and founded the town of McConnelsville, which would become the county seat of Morgan County.

Washington Township was created by the Muskingum County Commissioners on June 5, 1822 from land north of the Military Lands line that had been part of Zanesville "township." Although bounded the length of its west side by the Muskingum River (which  should have encouraged the growth of commerce and villages), Washington Township is devoid of any population center. Early on there was a hamlet named Jackson, located along present-day U.S. 40. It was platted in 1830 by Charles Roberts, and had a blacksmith's shop and a school, but no post office, tavern or other places of businesses. It was almost strictly residential, and an 1882 county history noted it was a good place to avoid "the bustle of life." The Ohio Ghost Town Exploration Co. (https://ohioghosttowns.org/muskingum-county/ ) lists the Jackson area as a ghost town, although there are no remnants left of the village.

Today there is an unincorporated "population center" in Washington Township called Pleasant Grove. It's notable only because it's the geographic center of Muskingum County.

Salem Township

Salem Township was set off from Highland Township by the county commissioners in July 1819. Salem (along with eleven other Muskingum townships) was located in the part of the county originally designated as "The United States Military District." This large area of land was laid out by Congress to provide land grants to veterans of the American Revolution, in partial payment for their military service. Salem Township was named for Salem, Massachusetts, from where a number of the area's first white settlers came around 1810. Originally, the area was home to the Mingo and Shawnee peoples.

Surnames of those arriving around 1810 include: Gaumer, Williams, Swigert, Shroyer, Wertz, Stoner, Stiers, Wisecarver, Starkey. William S. Denison, who helped build the first permanent frame residence in the township (1814), is credited with being its "first" settler, although, clearly, given the above list, he was not alone. 

Actually, William Slack Denison (1794-1880) was only 16 when he arrived in the area with his parents and older siblings. While the siblings quickly married, William remained a bachelor for many years, and became his father's primary business partner. The thriving family bought up more land, and William went on to became a well-known (and quite wealthy) "business farmer & stock raiser." The Denison family built the first brick home in Salem Township in 1820. They also erected the township's first school building. 

But William Denison's real fame came because of his endowment to a Baptist college located a two days ride west of his Salem Township home. In 1853, Granville College was in serious need of money and offered to rename the school after anyone who would give it $10,000 (almost $400,000 in today's money). William Denison, who never set foot on the college's campus, pledged the money and three years later, Granville College became Denison College. An interesting article in Denison Magazine suggests two possible reasons for William's pledge, the difficulty the college had in getting the money, and the rest of William's story. You can access the full story here: Being William Denison

Adamsville Post Office, 1915

Adamsville, the only village still in existence in the township was laid out in 1832 by Mordecai Adams. The 19th century villages of Mechanicsville and Spencer no longer exist, and Adamsville today has only 140 residents. But for a time, Adamsville thrived, enjoying a reputation, according to the Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, as "unsurpassed by any [village] in the county" for "the beauty of its site and the healthfulness of its location." The Memoirs also claims that "no community or village of its size in the county [pop. 300] is accuated by higher motives or a more clear conception of progressive ideas and public welfare." A post office was established in 1835, and a local newspaper, The Adamsville Register, was established in 1889. While Adamsville sounds like a good place to live, its businesses suffered from the lack of rail service, the nearest depot being seven miles away. The community hoped a rail connection would be built, but sadly for Adamsville, it never happened.

Meigs Township

Meigs Township, in the southeast corner of Muskingum County, is the least populated of the county's twenty-five townships. Only 228 people lived there as of 2020, a considerable drop from its heyday in 1860 when the township boasted 1,547 residents.

Originally part of Rich Hill Township, Meigs was officially formed on July 13, 1819. The first township officers were Zoath and John Hammond, Llewelyn Pierce, and Jacob Wortman. The distinction of being the first white settlers, however, goes to Finley Collins and the Gillogly family. Other early settlers included Dunlap, Gilbaut, Johnson, Starritt, and McIntire. The township was named for Meigs Creek which runs through the township, but that was named for Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr. who served as Ohio first Chief Justice, a U.S. Senator, and Ohio's fourth Governor.

Meigs has no population centers now, although in the second half of the 19th Century and into the early

Return J. Meigs, Jr.

 part of the 20th, there were three thriving communities: High Hill, Zeno, and Young Hickory also called Meigsville. All three villages had post offices, often seen as a sign that an area was thriving. High Hill and Young Hickory had post offices established as early as 1846; Zeno's post office was established in 1862. 

Meigs Township is characterized by high hills and deep ravines. Four creeks traverse through it. The first white settlers seem to have made an effort to farm the land and set out orchards, but the presence of large deposits of coal changed the nature and the history of the township, bringing prosperity at first, and then literal destruction of the above communities. 

In the 1960's, American Electric Power and Central Ohio Coal Company began large scale strip mining to supply coal for electric power plants. Huge equipment, most famously the Big Muskie, literally tore Meigs Township apart. The villages of High Hill, Zeno, and Young Hickory disappeared, and the land was left hideously scarred. When the mining was complete, AEP began an extensive reclamation project that created rolling hills, several small lakes, and a wildlife habitat. In 1980, AEP donated 9,000 acres of the reclaimed land to establish The Wilds, one of the world's largest conservation centers.

The Big Muskie

Monroe Township

 

The first pioneer settler in the area that would become Monroe Township was Charles Marquand. Marquand was born on the Isle of Guernsey in 1763, and emigrated to Maryland, with his wife and five children around 1805. The family relocated to the northeast section of Muskingum County, along Wills Creek, around 1808-1810. An enterprising man, Marquand built a gristmill, sawmill, and a carding and fullingmill along the creek. A village named Marquand's Mills grew up alongside the mills. By the late 1880's the community merited a post office, but in 1902, the post office was closed. Marquand Mills no longer exists.

Monroe Township was formed on July 2, 1819, and was named for President James Monroe. There is no information in The Biographical and Historical Memoirs as to who were the first officers of the new township, although it notes that the elections were held in the home of James Sprague. Sprague settled in the area that would become Otsego in 1812. Sprague and his sons built the first road in the township, connecting Otsego to Symms Creek. 

Otsego originally had been the site of a Native American town well-known as a trading center. White settlers platted a town there in 1838, and supposedly named it for Otsego, New York, although it appears to have been known by that name for several decades before it was laid out. The Memoirs doesn't mention any early settlers coming from New York, so the origin of the name might not be accurate. The Otsego Post Office was established in 1840 and functioned until 1963. Today, Otsego, which was never incorporated, is Monroe Township's only population center.

The Otsego Methodist Church was the first church
established in Monroe Township. The first
congregation formed in 1816. 

Madison Township

 

The Muskingum County commissioners ordered the formation of Madison Township from a section of Jefferson Township on July 2, 1819. 

Jacob Swigert (b. 1772, Pennsylvania-d. Dec. 9, 1863, Madison Twp.) settled in the area in 1800. Swigert's parents, Sebastian and Magdalena Weigl Sweigart, were German immigrants. Apparently, quite a few German immigrants and/or their children moved into this part of Muskingum County between 1800-1810 because lessons in the first school established there were taught in German. It wasn't until 1811 that classes were taught in English. In addition to "Swigert," other early settlers included Bainter, Stoner, Shirer, and Copeland.

There are no municipalities in Madison Township. According to the U.S. census bureau, the township had a population of only 495 in 2020. Because Madison is bounded in part by the Muskingum River, it once boasted a fairly large number of grist mills and sawmills. At least two potteries, the William Minner Pottery and the King & Swope Pottery were established between 1869-1879 along Symmes Creek which feeds into the Muskingum. 

As with most of Muskingum County's townships, the earliest church congregation was Methodist, and the first church building, the Whelan Methodist Episcopal Church, was erected in 1823. A Presbyterian church was built around 1835 on land belonging to Judge Daniel Stillwell. Neither of these churches exist today, but there is a Whelan Cemetery.

Supposedly the township has several "ancient mounds," dating from the times of the Adena and Hopewell cultures. According to Google AI, the mounds were noted as nearby features in historic descriptions of several of the mills, but there is no modern-day information about the type (effigy or burial) of mounds or their exact location. We cannot be certain such structures actually existed.

The historic Dresden Suspension Bridge, built over 

the Muskingum River in 1853, connected Madison

Township with the town of Dresden in Jefferson 

Township. The bridge is permanently closed.

Hopewell Township

 

Around 1803, Samuel Bonnifield of Virginia became the first white settler in the area that would eventually become Hopewell Township. On February 3, 1812, the Muskingum County Commissioners received a petition asking that they create a new township from parts of Falls and Madison Townships, to be called Hopewell. Despite some opposition, the commissioners granted the petition and directed that elections for township officials be held. Surnames of early township officials include Colvin, Rolles, Simons, and Higginbotham. 

Hopewell Township has several population centers, but all are unincorporated except for the village of Gratiot. Gratiot straddles the county line of Licking and Muskingum Counties, and was platted in 1829. It is one of several places nationwide named for Charles Gratiot (1786-1855), a graduate of West Point, and a high-ranking officer in the Army Corps of Engineers. Although not a native of Ohio, Charles Gratiot would have been known to Ohioans: He served as Gen. William Henry Harrison's chief engineer during the War of 1812, and built Ft. Meigs near Perrysburgh, Ohio. 

Gratiot's IOOF Hall

Unincorporated communities in the township include Mount Sterling (not to be confused with the village of the same name in Madison County), Hopewell, Cottage Hill, and Darlington. The history of these places is limited. Not even Biographical and Historical Memoirs has much to say about the area. 

• Potteries grew up in and around the communityof Mount Sterling in the early 1820's. A local pottery business, Allen & Son, "invented and for a time manufactured earthenware coffins." Apparently the idea never caught on. 

• The community of Hopewell developed when the National Road was extended to that part of Muskingum County.  A post office was established there in 1830. It was moved to Mount Sterling, but retained the name, Hopewell P.O. until it was closed in 2015.

• Other population centers in Hopewell include Cottage Hill and Darlington. Post offices were established in both communities: Cottage Hill (Cottagehill P.O.),1855-1902: Darlington (Newton P.O.), 1834-1897.

  

  Charles Gratiot

Brush Creek Township

The history of the formation of Brush Creek Township is pretty sketchy. The first white inhabitants were, according to The Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, a nomadic family of hunters headed by Henry Dozer. Johan Georg Schwingel (1755-1843) of the Saarland, Germany, credited with being the first settler, supposedly arrived in the Brush Creek area around 1810. Like many German immigrants, he anglicized his name, and is known as George Swingle. 

Between 1813-1819, Brush Creek's first saw-mill, first grist-mill, and first schoolhouse were built. The mills were built by Samuel Stover, for whom the township's only population center is named. (More about that later.)

Brush Creek Township was established on February 10, 1817. It appears to have broken off from Blue Creek, the township to the east. The Memoirs inaccurately says that the township broke off from Harrison Township, although Harrison wasn't formally established until 1839. There is no record of the original officers of the new township. 

Everhart claimed to have unearthed
a carved stone with ancient writing 
on a farm in Brush Creek Township

Brush Creek's claim to fame is the Brush Creek Mound excavated by J. F. Everhart, the author of History of Muskingum County, Ohio. Everhart's rambling account of his "excavation" and of the mound's supposed history was the opening salvo of his overly large and often inaccurate tome. It was also one of several elaborate hoaxes involving a "race of giants" perpetrated on a gullible American public in the late 1800's. Nevertheless, for a time, Brush Creek Township enjoyed a bit of notoriety. (See previous blog post "Giants in the Earth?")

There are no municipalities in Brush Creek. A post office on the branch line of the Columbus, Shawnee & Hocking Railroad eventually became Stoverton, the township's only population center. The Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County tells the story of the village's naming: This place was...named in honor of Samuel Stover, who was found murdered near the upper bridge in Zanesville. After his death a stock of goods came from New York addressed to him and were brought to this point [the post office], and the store thus established formed the nucleus of the present little village.