Beaver Township, Pike County

How Beaver Township, Pike County began

Beaver Township was organized by the Ross County commissioners on September 8, 1814, before Pike County existed, and then covered all the land east of the Scioto and south of the Scioto County line. Its pioneers came from Pennsylvania, Virginia and a few from the Carolinas into what the 1884 county history calls an unbroken wilderness, and settled the broad, level valley of Beaver Creek, from which the township takes its name. Jackson and Seal townships were cut from it in 1815, Union and Marion in 1848, and small changes followed in 1850 and 1851. German congregations organized in the valley from 1840 on; the township had 1,291 residents in 2020.

Incorporated September 8, 1814 (organized by the Ross County commissioners).

Where the name comes from

The township most likely takes its name from Beaver Creek, per William Daniel Overman's Ohio Town Names (1958). An 1884 county history confirms this directly: "Beaver Creek took its name from the number of these little water animals which infested its waters and banks... From this stream the township took its name."

Before the town

No village, mound, trail or encounter is recorded for Beaver Township in the sources read. What the record supports is the land's status: Pike County lies south and east of the Greenville line, and the Treaty of Greenville (signed August 3, 1795) ceded roughly two-thirds of Ohio to the United States. The first settlers in this part of the county came within a few years after it, in 1796 and later.

Timeline

1. early 1800s — Abraham Lawrence is among the first to arrive, clearing a patch and building a rude cabin on what became the Given farm; Rev. Darly Kelly settles soon after on Beaver Creek, just beyond the later site of Beavertown.
2. c. 1810 — William Saylor settles the farm later owned by William Kirkpatrick, which lies in Union Township after 1848.
3. 1812 — John James moves to the township from Pennsylvania; his son D. W. James is born here and was still a Justice of the Peace in 1883.
4. September 8, 1814 — Beaver Township is organized by the Ross County commissioners, before Pike County exists, covering all territory east of the Scioto River and south of the Scioto County line.
5. 1815 — When Pike County is organized (February 1, 1815), Jackson and Seal townships are formed out of Beaver, Seal taking most of what became Scioto Township; another chapter of the same history says instead that Ross County cut Jackson from Pee Pee in 1814.
6. 1840 — St. John's Lutheran Church is organized in the southern part of the township, meeting in the school-house until an $800 church is built and dedicated in 1845; the township has 1,075 residents.
7. May 1848 — Union Township is cut from Beaver and Seal (the Union chapter of the same history gives May 7).
8. December 4, 1848 — Marion Township is cut from Beaver, and on the same date the Jackson-Beaver line is moved at the petition of Jackson Township citizens.
9. 1850 — After the loss of Marion the township has 520 residents; a portion of Union is attached to Beaver on December 3.
10. March 1851 — A portion of Beaver is attached to Jackson and to Union townships, leaving the township its present shape.
11. 1859 — The German United Brethren congregation of Beavertown Chapel is organized and builds a $900 church the following year.
12. 1874 — St. Peter's Reformed Church, one of the oldest congregations in the township, is reorganized on November 8 and builds a brick church in Beavertown in 1875.
13. 1880 — The township has 750 residents (698 in 1860 and 694 in 1870).
14. 1882 — The township's 14,642 assessed acres are valued at $80,151 and its personal property at $87,427, a total valuation of $174,392 with Beavertown.
15. 2020 — The census counts 1,291 residents in the township.

Stories

A township cut four ways

When the Ross County commissioners organized Beaver Township on September 8, 1814, it took in everything east of the Scioto River and south of the Scioto County line, a block of southeastern Pike County several times its present size. The 1884 county history traces how it lost ground. Pike County's organization in 1815 produced Jackson and Seal townships out of it, and in May 1848 Union was cut away, followed on December 4 of the same year by Marion. That December the line with Jackson was also redrawn at the petition of Jackson's citizens, and further trades with Union and Jackson in December 1850 and March 1851 gave the township its shape. The 1840 census had counted 1,075 people; by 1850 only 520 remained inside the smaller township, though its farms were no poorer.

The valley of the beavers

The 1884 history says Beaver Creek took its name from the beavers that 'infested its waters and banks,' and that the township took its name from the creek. The history's author was struck by the creek's setting. Back from each bank lies a wide, gently rolling plain, so broad that the 'Beaver Valley' looks to the eye less like a valley than a nearly level country, in places as wide as the Scioto Valley; he guessed that in ages past the creek must have been a river as large as the Scioto. That wide, level ground drew the first settlers, Abraham Lawrence with his rude cabin on the Given farm and Rev. Darly Kelly on the creek, and later William Saylor and John James. They came from Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas to what the historian called an unbroken wilderness; by 1883 none of those pioneers was left alive to tell of the hardships.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Waverly City57% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Ross County Water Co. Inc14% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Beaver13% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Lake White9% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Pike Water, Inc.-plant7% of residentsTeays Valley Buried Valley Aquifer (wells near Jasper)

Public schools (4)

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 2025-08-05
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2021 to 2022, released 2024-08-27

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