Chesterhill

How Chesterhill began

Chesterhill was founded in 1834 and, according to Wikipedia, named for Chester County, Pennsylvania, the home county of many of its first settlers, most of them Quakers. The village became a stop on the Underground Railroad; Wikipedia reports that escaped slaves found shelter in Henman Cave and in the homes of Quaker families led by Elias Bundy, Jesse Hiatt and Nathan Morris. Population peaked at 876 in 1960 before falling sharply over the following decade, and stood at 276 at the 2020 census.

Settled 1834, platted 1834, by Plat of forty-eight lots laid off for Exum Bundy by surveyor J. B. Pruden on land owned by Bundy and Elijah Hiatt, Quaker settlers.

Where the name comes from

Robertson's 1886 county history says the settlers considered Bundyville and Boswell (for Dempsey Boswell) before Boswell himself preferred Chester; that name would have been adopted but for a Chester already to the southward, so Chesterfield was chosen as the nearest. When a post office was established it turned out there was already a Chesterfield post office in the state, so the place became Chester Hill, though locally the old name was still more common. Wikipedia says the village is named for Chester County, Pennsylvania, the home of many of its first settlers.

Before the town

No Native American sites specific to the Chesterhill town plat are recorded in the sources checked. The village lies in Marion Township, in the western part of Morgan County; the county's own Lenape (Delaware) and Wyandot presence along the Muskingum valley predates the 1834 founding of Chesterhill by decades and is recorded at the county level. Nothing site-specific to Chesterhill or Marion Township was found.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1834 — Chesterhill is founded and, according to Wikipedia, named for Chester County, Pennsylvania, home of many of its first settlers (the 1886 county history gives a different account of the name).
2. 1835 — Elijah Hiatt makes the first addition to the town, lots 49 to 80, partly on Exum Bundy's land; further additions follow quickly from Bundy, Dempsey Boswell, William Crew and Nahum Ward, and Caleb Williams makes the last in 1867.
3. 1835 — Dempsey Boswell opens the first store in a small frame building on lot 16 as partner with Jesse Beck and Elijah Hiatt, each putting in $250; Jesse Beck builds a cabin and starts a horse mill and carding mill.
4. 1836 — George G. King arrives in the spring with his family, the seventh in the town, sets up the first blacksmith shop and, because the Friends would not hold the office, serves as justice of the peace for eighteen successive years and to 1884 in all; Chandler Lee starts a tannery.
5. 1837 — Dr. Isaac Huestis becomes the first resident physician in June, and Arnold Patterson raises the first two-story log house, which becomes a tavern; the first schoolteacher was probably Mary Dewees.
6. 1840 — A post office is established, not later than 1840, through the efforts of Squire King, the citizens having raised $50 by subscription to carry the mail weekly from Plymouth to Pennsville; Reece Cadwallader is the first postmaster, and the first quarter's revenue to the government is 40 cents.
7. before 1861 — Chester Hill and neighboring Pennsville, strongly Quaker and abolitionist, are places where fugitive slaves who reached them were reasonably safe from recapture and were sent on their way, according to Robertson's 1886 county history.
8. 1853 — Mount Olive Lodge No. 148, F. and A. M., chartered at Plymouth in 1847, moves its seat to Chester Hill on May 15.
9. 1881 — A three-grade schoolhouse is built at a cost of about $8,000; by 1886 the village has about 450 inhabitants, three churches, a gristmill and sawmill, no saloons, and four physicians.
10. 1900 — Village population recorded at 480.
11. 1960 — Village population reaches its recorded peak of 876.
12. 1970 — Population falls to 361, a decline of 58.8 percent from the 1960 peak.
13. 2020 — The census counts 276 residents.

Stories

Quaker families and the Underground Railroad

Chesterhill's first settlers came largely from Chester County, Pennsylvania, and brought their Quaker faith and its opposition to slavery with them. In the decades before the Civil War, escaped slaves making their way north found shelter here, Wikipedia reports, hidden in Henman Cave and taken in by Quaker families -- among them Elias Bundy, Jesse Hiatt and Nathan Morris -- who risked prosecution under federal fugitive-slave law to help them on. The village's role as a station on the Underground Railroad is remembered locally at the Quaker Meeting House the community built, and it remains the best-documented chapter of Chesterhill's history.

A town of Friends with no one willing to be magistrate

Chester Hill's founders were Quakers, and the 1886 county history praises the village built by 'its pious Quaker founders,' which then had no saloons, drinking places or low resorts. Because the Friends were unwilling to hold the office of justice of the peace, the village leaned on its blacksmith, George G. King, who arrived in the spring of 1836 as the seventh family in town and served as justice for eighteen years running, thirty-three years by 1884. The first plat had forty-eight lots, and when a stranger asked Elijah Hiatt the way to Chesterfield, as the town was first called, Hiatt answered, 'Thee is in the midst of the city.' Daughters of Samuel Lee, arriving from a well-settled country forty-eight miles from Philadelphia, cried from homesickness at the dismal sight, according to the county history. The first post office, in about 1840, was won by a vote among candidates and a $50 subscription to carry the mail from Plymouth, and it earned the government 40 cents in its first quarter.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Chesterhill Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public libraries (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 3 of 3 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

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

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.

Cite this page