Chauncey

How Chauncey began

Chauncey was founded in 1838-39 after Philadelphia capitalists Elihu Chauncey and Nicholas Biddle, with partners Thomas Ewing and Sam Vinton, bought Resolved Fuller's salt-well farm on Sunday Creek for $12,500. It was named for Chauncey and ran on salt production for more than 50 years, then on deep coal mining from 1896 until the last mine closed in 1952. The village was the site of the 1932 'Chauncey War,' a violent strike episode in the year-long Hocking Valley coal strike. It is a small, mostly residential Hocking Valley community today, still shaped by its coal-camp layout.

Platted 1839, by Elihu Chauncey, Nicholas Biddle, Thomas Ewing and Sam Vinton, who bought Resolved Fuller's salt-well property.

Where the name comes from

The village was named for Elihu P. Chauncey, one of the Philadelphia investors who bought the salt-well farm in 1838 and platted the town the following year.

Before the town

No source specific to Chauncey documents a Native American village, trail, or mound within the village. Chauncey sits on Sunday Creek in the Hocking Valley, a drainage used by Shawnee, Wyandot, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga) and other nations for hunting and travel into the late 1700s, and the land was ceded under the Treaty of Greenville (1795) and later cessions covering the Hocking watershed; no site-specific village, camp, or earthwork at Chauncey itself is recorded in the sources checked.

Timeline

1. 1838 — Elihu Chauncey and Nicholas Biddle, with partners Thomas Ewing and Sam Vinton, purchased Resolved Fuller's salt-well farm on Sunday Creek for $12,500.
2. 1839 — The village of Chauncey was platted and named for Elihu Chauncey; salt wells along Bailey Run Road financed a brick hotel and other housing.
3. 1891 — A flood destroyed the last operating salt well, ending more than 50 years of salt production at Chauncey.
4. 1896 — Investors recruited coal operator William Jones, launching the deep coal mining era that came to dominate Chauncey's economy.
5. 1932-07-12 — During the year-long Hocking Valley coal strike, miners protesting New York Coal Company wage cuts exploded the New York Central Railroad bridge near Mine #25 at Chauncey; Ohio National Guard troops, deployed to protect reopened mines beginning June 8, reached a peak strength of 449 officers and men, and the episode became known locally as the 'Chauncey War.'
6. 1952 — The New York Coal Company closed its Chauncey mine, ending deep coal mining in the village.
7. 2016 — The Athens Conservancy established a 13.5-acre wetland preserve and trail along Sunday Creek in Chauncey.
8. 2022 — A state historical marker was dedicated honoring the 'Chauncey Boys,' three local men who served in the Union Army during the Civil War, two of whom are buried locally.

Stories

The Chauncey War

By 1932 the Great Depression had cut deep into Hocking Valley coal wages, and miners across the district walked out. On June 8 the New York Coal Company reopened its Mine #25 near Chauncey and the Sunday Creek Coal Company reopened its Millfield Mine #6, both under Ohio National Guard protection; guard strength around the mines peaked at 449 officers and men by June 10. Tension in Chauncey came to a head on July 12, 1932, when striking miners dynamited a section of the New York Central Railroad bridge near Mine #25. Troops responded with tear gas, and the standoff left the village with a reputation, still used locally, as the site of the 'Chauncey War.' The strike dragged on for roughly a year before it was settled, and residents say the pronunciation locals used for the town's name, 'Chance-ee' rather than 'Chahn-see,' became a way of spotting union outsiders during the dispute.

From salt town to coal camp

Chauncey began as a company venture in salt, not coal. Elihu Chauncey and Nicholas Biddle bought out Resolved Fuller's salt-well operation on Sunday Creek in 1838 for $12,500, and the wells they drilled, concentrated along what is now Bailey Run Road, financed the village's first brick hotel and housing stock. The salt business ran for more than half a century until a flood wrecked the last working well in 1891. Five years later the village found a second industry when investors brought in coal operator William Jones, and deep coal mining took over the local economy through the early 20th century, drawing miners from across Appalachia before the last mine shut down in 1952.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · villageofchauncey.com · resources.ohiohistory.org · hmdb.org

Groundwater wells (2 wells) The water here

• Chauncey100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public libraries (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 1 of 2 passed.

Ballot issues

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-11-07

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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