Beaver

How Beaver began

The village of Beaver, straddling Beaver and Marion townships in southern Pike County, was laid out just before 1840 by a man named Reynolds and was known first as Reynolds or Reynoldstown, then as Beavertown after Beaver Creek, before settling on its present name; a 1958 county history (McCoy) notes it was also known colloquially at one time as "Bum Town." By 1883 it had five stores, a flouring mill, three churches and two hotels, with a station on the Ohio Southern Railroad nearby. Census figures trace the village's population back to 262 in 1900; it has grown slowly and unevenly since, reaching 442 by 2020. The village is today home to Dogwood Pass, a living-history museum built as a replica Old West town.

Platted just before 1840, by laid out by a man named Reynolds; first called Reynolds or Reynoldstown, then Beavertown.

Where the name comes from

The village most likely takes its name from nearby Beaver Creek, per William Daniel Overman's Ohio Town Names (1958), as cited in the village's Wikipedia article. The 1884 county history and McCoy's 1958 county history together give the fuller sequence: the settlement was first named Reynolds or Reynoldstown after the man who laid it out just before 1840, then Beavertown after Beaver Creek (itself named for the beavers that infested its banks), and was at one time known locally as "Bum Town" before settling on its present, shortened name.

Before the town

No village, mound, trail or encounter is recorded for the village of Beaver 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. just before 1840 — The settlement that became Beaver was laid out by a man named Reynolds and first called Reynolds, or Reynoldstown.
2. 1840 — Beaver Township, which then included the future Union and Marion townships, has 1,075 residents; the village site on Beaver Creek is not yet separately counted.
3. 1859 — The German congregation of the United Brethren, Beavertown Chapel, is organized, and completes a 36-by-46-foot church building early the next year at a cost of $900; few German families lived in the area at first.
4. 1865 — Beavertown's flouring mill, with three runs of burrs, two for wheat and one for corn, is built by Messrs. Poffman & Kuntzman at a cost of $10,000.
5. 1870 — Beavertown's Methodist Episcopal Church is organized and a 30-by-40-foot church building is erected the same year at a cost of $1,200.
6. 1874 — Ehrman & Brother buy the mill, which has a sixty-horsepower engine and a saw-mill attached; in November St. Peter's Reformed Church is reorganized under that name by Rev. William Steghow.
7. 1875 — St. Peter's Reformed Church builds a brick church in Beavertown.
8. 1883 — Beavertown has five stores, a blacksmith shop, the flouring mill, three churches, a public school, two hotels and two physicians, with a station on the Ohio Southern Railroad about half a mile away.
9. 1900 — The village has 262 residents, the first census figure on record for it.
10. 1930 — The census counts 295 residents.
11. 1960 — Population reaches 341 after a 19.6 percent gain over 1950, when it stood at 285.
12. 2000 — Population reaches 464, a 38.1 percent gain and the highest count the census table shows.
13. 2020 — The census counts 442 residents (449 in 2010).

Stories

Reynolds, Beavertown, and "Bum Town"

The place now called Beaver did not start out with that name. A man named Reynolds laid out the settlement just before 1840, and for a few years it was known as Reynolds, or Reynoldstown. It was then renamed Beavertown, for Beaver Creek, which ran through the valley and was itself named for the number of beavers once found along its banks. McCoy's 1958 history of Pike County records that the settlement was also known colloquially at one time as "Bum Town," though it does not say why. By the 1880s Beavertown had grown into a real business center for the surrounding Beaver Valley farms, with five stores, a blacksmith shop, a flouring mill with a saw-mill attached, three churches, a public school and two hotels, and a station on the Ohio Southern Railroad within a half mile.

German congregations in the Beaver Valley

The 1884 county history shows how the Beaver Creek valley filled with German-speaking families after the first English-speaking pioneers. The United Brethren's German congregation at Beavertown organized in 1859 when 'there were but few resident German families,' yet by 1883 nineteen families belonged to it. St. Peter's Reformed Church, one of the township's oldest, was reorganized on November 8, 1874, and put up a brick church in the hamlet in 1875; by 1883 forty families belonged. In the southern part of the township St. John's Lutheran Church, organized in 1840 and housed in an $800 building from 1845, counted twenty-five families, and Rev. J. M. Grether served both it and St. Peter's. The names on the trustee lists, Scharenberg, Leist, Kaufman, Laff and Ehrman, record where the congregations came from.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Beaver100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public libraries (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 1 of 1 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

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.
• Financial Audit, 2020 to 2021, released 2026-06-23

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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