A stage coach stop in Irville |
Licking Township's two main "population centers" were the villages of Irville, platted in 1814, and Nashport, platted in 1827 to be a "port" along the newly opened Ohio Canal. Pleasant Valley, a third population center, was located on the opposite side of the Licking River from Irville and Nashport. With the founding of Irville came the township's first schoolhouse, and a Presbyterian church which was first frame building in the township. A stagecoach route connecting Columbus and Zanesville ran through the area, and a couple of taverns served tired and thirsty travelers, as well as the locals.
In the 1960s, the construction of Dillon Dam erased Irville, Nashport, and Pleasant Valley, as well as several smaller township communities, off the map. Families were displaced and homes and stores were torn down. Bodies were exhumed from cemeteries and reinterred elsewhere. Some buildings from the original villages were moved to "New" Nashport, the township's only current-day population center.A detailed history of the three lost population centers, can be found in Before Dillon: Memories of the Lost Villages of Nashport, Irville, and Pleasant Valley by Rose Ellen Jenkins and Mari McLean. The book is available for purchase at the MCCOGS Market Place http://mccogs.org/sales.html
Love your blogs Mary , thanks for the history!
ReplyDeleteIt is wonderful to get these digestible, yet filling, tastes of Muskingum County history.
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