Clay Township, Muskingum County

How Clay Township, Muskingum County began

Clay Township sits in the southwestern corner of Muskingum County, a small 9.4-square-mile township whose northwestern edge holds part of the village of Roseville. Roseville itself was laid out in 1812 by Ezekiel Rose, first called New Milford, and grew on the clay deposits of the Muskingum Valley's 'clay belt' into one of Ohio's leading pottery towns from the 1890s through the mid-20th century. The Ransbottom family, whose houses stand among the township's National Register listings, ran one of the district's largest stoneware works. The township today remains lightly populated, its history bound up with the potteries and their workers.

Platted 1812 (Roseville, as New Milford, by Ezekiel Rose), incorporated 1840 (Roseville), by Ezekiel Rose (Roseville).

Where the name comes from

Clay Township is one of nine townships in Ohio named Clay; no source found ties the name specifically to the local clay-and-pottery industry rather than the general statewide naming pattern (several honor Henry Clay). Roseville, platted in Clay Township's northwest corner, was first called New Milford and had been renamed Roseville, likely after founder Ezekiel Rose, by the time its post office was applied for in 1830.

Before the town

No source specific to Clay Township describes Native villages, trails, or encounters within its boundaries. At the county level, the Muskingum River valley was Wyandot territory in the mid-1700s -- a Wyandot band under Chief Orontony founded a town called Muskingum at present-day Coshocton in 1748 after moving from Sandusky to escape conflict with the French -- and Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga) people occupied the country between the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, with Shawnee to the south along the Scioto. Nineteenth-century county historians (Everhart's 1882 History of Muskingum County) recorded that early settlers asked local Shawnee, Wyandot, and Lenape (Delaware) people about the origin of earthworks and mounds found across the county, but no mound, village, or trail has been documented specifically within Clay Township in the sources checked.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga), Lenape (Delaware).

Timeline

1. 1812 — Ezekiel Rose lays out the settlement of New Milford, later renamed Roseville, in what becomes northwestern Clay Township.
2. 1830 — A post office is applied for under the name Roseville, by which time the settlement's name had already changed from New Milford.
3. 1833 — Roseville has a gristmill and a saw mill in operation.
4. 1840 — Roseville is incorporated, with Dr. James Little elected its first mayor.
5. 1890 — The Roseville Pottery Company is founded by J.F. Weaver, initially producing utilitarian stoneware.
6. 1900 — Ross C. Purdy takes over design direction at Roseville Pottery Company and the firm begins producing art pottery for a wider market.
7. 1916 — Ransbottom Pottery has become the largest producer of stoneware jars in the United States.
8. c. 1920 — The Ransbottom pottery merges to form Robinson Ransbottom Pottery.
9. 1954 — The Roseville Pottery Company, once among the most commercially successful American art-pottery makers, closes.
10. 1978-1980 — The Factory Site and the C.W., Edward, Frank M., and Mort Ransbottom houses, the Adam Rider House, Roseville High School, and St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church -- all in the 43777 ZIP that covers Clay Township's Roseville-area corner -- are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
11. 1966 — Roseville and neighboring Crooksville begin alternating as hosts of the Crooksville-Roseville Pottery Festival, started to support the struggling local ceramics industry.

Stories

A stoneware dynasty in a farm township

In 1900, Frank Ransbottom and his brothers opened a stoneware pottery in Roseville, on the edge of Clay Township. The firm grew fast: by 1916 it was the largest stoneware-jar producer in the country, turning out the crocks, jugs, and jars that stocked Ohio farm kitchens and general stores. In 1920 the Ransbottom works merged to form Robinson Ransbottom Pottery. The family built houses close to the works -- the C.W., Edward, Frank M., and Mort Ransbottom houses were all listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 11, 1980, a cluster of family homes that traces how one immigrant-scale pottery grew into a national supplier while its owners stayed rooted in the township where they built it.

The clay belt that built a village

The land under Clay Township and neighboring Roseville sat on some of the finest stoneware clay in the Muskingum Valley, and over the decades that resource drew an industrial cluster of potteries: the Roseville Pottery Company (1890), Ransbottom Pottery (1900), and Nelson McCoy Pottery (1910) among them, part of what became known regionally as Ohio's Pottery Belt. The industry shaped daily life on both sides of the township line for generations, and its memory is kept alive today through the Crooksville-Roseville Pottery Festival, running since 1966.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · npgallery.nps.gov · en.wikipedia.org · ohiomagazine.com

Every historic place in Muskingum County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Roseville77% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• Maysville Regional Water13% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• Muskingum County Water - Se5% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• Crooksville5% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2017: 2 of 2 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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-11-06

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