Brush Creek Township, Adams County

How Brush Creek Township, Adams County began

Brush Creek Township is a later division of central Adams County, listed as organized in 1924 on the county's GenWeb township page: the county histories of 1880 and 1900 list no township of that name and place its communities of Lynx and Selig inside Jefferson Township. The ridge country around Lynx, on Greenbriar Mountain, had a Methodist Protestant congregation, Liberty Chapel, by the late 1830s and a Baptist church by 1871. Lynx post office opened in 1879 and was named for the lynx that once lived in the region; Selig, named for merchant Hugo Selig, had a post office from 1886 to 1907, and Tulip from 1899 to 1954. The township had 1,097 residents at the 2020 census.

Incorporated 1924 (Adams County GenWeb township list, a volunteer site; not confirmed in a primary record).

Where the name comes from

The township name is shared with Brush Creek townships in Jefferson, Muskingum and Scioto counties; the reason for the choice is not recorded in the available sources.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or trail within the present Brush Creek Township is described in the 1880 atlas or the 1900 county history, which treat this area as part of Jefferson Township.

Timeline

1. 1806 — Jefferson Township, the large parent township that included the Lynx and Selig country, is organized from Iron Ridge Township; at 50,450 acres it is the largest in the county in 1900, with a voting population over a thousand and four precincts including Lynx.
2. 1837 — Liberty Chapel, a Methodist Protestant congregation known as 'Greenbriar,' was organized near the later Lynx post office (the 1880 atlas says about 1839).
3. 1871 — Cedar Grove Baptist church was organized about a mile north of Liberty Chapel on Greenbriar.
4. 1875 — A great influx of settlers from the burley tobacco districts of Brown and Clermont counties begins in the old Jefferson Township and continues to 1885, turning the hillsides into white burley fields.
5. 1879 — Lynx post office was established on Green Briar Mountain on May 14 with E.L. Ellis as postmaster, named for the lynx that once lived in the hills.
6. 1886 — A post office called Selig was established, named for Hugo Selig, a merchant there; it closed in 1907.
7. 1899 — A post office called Tulip was established; it remained in operation until 1954.
8. 1900 — Evans and Stivers's county history still placed Lynx and Selig in Jefferson Township; no Brush Creek Township appears among the county's townships.
9. 1924 — Brush Creek Township is organized, according to the Adams County GenWeb township list, which has it among fifteen townships; the county histories of 1880 and 1900 list no such township.

Stories

Greenbriar and the Lynx post office

The high ground around Lynx was known as Greenbriar, and the 1900 county history says a lone tree on top of Greenbriar Mountain could be seen on a clear day from the Odd Fellows' Cemetery at West Union, nearly ten miles away. Methodist Protestants organized Liberty Chapel near there in the late 1830s, and Cedar Grove Baptist church followed about a mile north in 1871; a log meeting house called Hill's Chapel, nicknamed 'Hell's Kitchen,' stood on Randall's Run. When a post office was set up on the mountain in 1879, the 1880 atlas says, finding a name was hard until someone thought of the wild animals that had lived in the hills, and 'Lynx' was proposed to Washington and accepted. E.L. Ellis was its first postmaster.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• West Union Public Water System79% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Adams County Regional Wd20% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Scioto Water Inc. - Pond Run1% of residentsOhio River
• Scioto Water Inc.-sr1250% of residentsOhio River
• Portsmouth City0% of residentsOhio River

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 1 of 1 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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-09-04

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