Adams Townhip

Residents of the area that would become Adams Township were disadvantaged by the absence of viable roads, and the distance they had to travel to conduct business or participate in elections. They petitioned the Muskingum County commissioners to create a new township from parts of neighboring Madison and Monroe Townships that could be responsible for building and maintaining its own roads and infrastructure. They proposed the new township be named in honor of then President John Quincy Adams. 

James Wilcox is credited with being the first white settler in the area. He and his family migrated from Maine to Ohio via the Ohio River, and spent a bit of time in Marietta, Ohio before moving north into Muskingum County. They built a log cabin along Wills Creek around 1808. Over the next ten years, settlers came from Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Loudoun County, Virginia. The earliest settlers surnames include: Hashmar, Ballentine, Wisecarver, Bidwell, Monroe, Osborn, Barton, Shirer, and Sprague. David Brelsford, who arrived in the area in 1810, was the township's first blacksmith. William Barton built the first frame house, and Anthony Slater brought the first threshing machine and mower to Adams.

The first school was established in 1820, taught by New Englander William Jennison. In 1828, the first log schoolhouse was built. It measured 18' X 20' and had a fireplace large enough to accomodate six foot logs. A slightly larger schoolhouse was built of hewed logs in 1841, and "McGuffey Readers" were introduced into the curriculum in this structure. Adams' growing population eventually outgrew the one-room schoolhouse. By the 1890's, Adams Township had four separate school districts within its boundaries.

The oldest religious congregation in Adams was the Bethesda Methodist church, established by the Rev. Jesse Roe in 1827. A log church was erected in 1835, replaced by a frame structure in 1856. Roe went on to found Fairview, the second Methodist church in the township, and for many decades one of the most vital Methodist organizations in Adams, which drew hundreds of congregants for miles around. The influx of German settlers into Adams led to the establishment of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church where services were conducted in German for the first several years of the church's existence.

Fairview Methodist (above) and Zion Lutheran (below)