Amesville

How Amesville began

Amesville sits in Ames Township, organized in 1802 in northern Athens County, and the village itself was established by 1837; both are named for Fisher Ames, the Massachusetts congressman who helped secure federal backing for the Ohio Company of Associates' settlements. The village is best known for the Western Library Association, founded by local subscription in 1803-1804 and remembered as the 'Coonskin Library' because its organizers, lacking cash on the frontier, financed the book order by trading furs. Amesville's population peaked at 298 in 1930 and stood at 171 in the 2020 census, and the original library building and a later museum still stand in the village.

Incorporated by 1837.

Where the name comes from

Amesville and Ames Township are named for Fisher Ames (1758-1808), a Massachusetts Federalist congressman who was instrumental in securing federal support in Congress for the Ohio Company of Associates, the group of Revolutionary War veterans and New Englanders that organized the settlement of this part of the Northwest Territory from Marietta outward.

Before the town

No source specific to Amesville or Ames Township names a Native village, mound, or trail at this exact location. At the county level, Walker's 1869 History of Athens County documents ancient mounds and an earthwork/fortification of more than an acre, with 'rude bastions, ramparts, and curtains,' on 'the Plains' in Athens and Dover townships, where skeletons and stone weapons have been recovered; it identifies the Shawnee (Shawanese) as holding the wider Athens County region as part of the Scioto-Miami country, with Wyandot and Lenape (Delaware) parties frequently present on hunting and war expeditions. This is county-wide context; no site-specific Native history for Ames Township or Amesville itself was located in the sources consulted.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Wyandot, Lenape (Delaware).

• "The Plains" mound and earthwork group (mound) — Athens and Dover townships, Athens County (not within Ames Township), prehistoric, culture not specified in source (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1797 — Ephraim Cutler of the Ohio Company and George Ewing cut a horse path from Waterford to Federal Creek, where Cutler held lands, and make a second exploration that autumn with Capt. Benjamin Brown.
2. 1798 — George Ewing brings his family to Federal Creek in March, the first settlers of what becomes Ames Township; Silvanus Ames, who moved to the territory this year, settles near Cutler in May 1800.
3. 1799 — Judge Ephraim Cutler and Capt. Brown bring their families by canoe and horseback from Waterford, reaching their camp by Sharp's Fork on May 7 after a rainy night.
4. 1802 — Ames Township was organized in northern Athens County; it is the only Ames Township in Ohio.
5. 1802 — Ames is one of the four original townships of Athens County, then taking in land now in Morgan and Hocking counties as well as Trimble, York, Dover, Bern and Ames.
6. 1803 — At a town meeting called to discuss roads, Ames Township residents raised the idea of a subscription library but had no cash on the barter-based frontier economy to pay for one.
7. 1804 — The Western Library Association is founded at Ames on February 2, with shares of $2.50; Esquire Samuel Brown, on a business trip to New England with bearskins and other furs, buys fifty-one books for $73.50 on advice from Rev. Thaddeus Harris and Dr. Manasseh Cutler, and Ephraim Cutler is elected librarian on December 17.
8. 1810 — The Western Library Association is incorporated by act of the legislature on February 19.
9. 1830 — Ames Township has 857 people, up from 721 in 1820; 1,431 in 1840 and 1,482 in 1850.
10. 1854 — The Amesville Academy, formed by a meeting of citizens in November, is incorporated and employs J. P. Weethee as teacher from 1854 to 1856; it is one of the best academies in the county.
11. 1930 — Amesville's population peaked at 298 residents.
12. 1994 — A museum dedicated to the Coonskin Library collection opened in the former Amesville Grade School cafeteria.
13. 2020 — Census recorded 171 residents, an 11% increase over the 2010 count of 154.

Stories

The Coonskin Library

In 1803 the farmers of Ames Township gathered for a town meeting about roads, but the talk turned to books: the settlement was isolated from schools and libraries, and its people wanted a circulating library. Cash was almost nonexistent, since trade ran on barter, but some settlers were good hunters and paid their shares in furs and skins, which agents of John Jacob Astor and others bought for cash. Esquire Samuel Brown was about to make a business trip to New England in a light wagon, loaded with bearskins and other furs, and was given the money and deputed to buy the books; he was furnished with letters to the Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris, and in Boston Dr. Manasseh Cutler helped him choose a valuable collection. The Western Library Association was founded at Ames on February 2, 1804, with shares of $2.50 and a yearly tax of 25 cents, and on December 17, 1804 shareholders accepted fifty-one books; Ephraim Cutler was librarian. Walker's history calls it the first public library formed in the Northwest Territory, though not the first incorporated, and it was incorporated on February 19, 1810.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Amesville Public Water System90% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Sunday Creek Valley Water7% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Little Hocking Water Association, Inc.3% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (own wells, Porterfield wellfield)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (1)

Stations and terminals (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 5 of 5 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-11-13

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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