Colerain Township, Ross County

How Colerain Township, Ross County began

Colerain Township sits in the northeastern corner of Ross County, drained by the headwaters of Walnut, Salt, and Kinnikinnick creeks. Daniel Kershner settled here in 1796, the first of a wave of Virginia and Kentucky-born pioneers who found the Salt Creek valley thick with bear, wolf, and panther. Adelphi, platted early and called one of the oldest towns in the state by an 1871 county history, grew up as the township's only sizable village; Hallsville, unincorporated, sits nearby. Most of the township remains farmland today.

Settled 1796, by Daniel Kershner (first pioneer settler, arrived 1796).

Where the name comes from

The reason for the name Colerain is not recorded; the name is also used by townships in Belmont and Hamilton counties.

Before the town

No named historic Shawnee town is recorded in Colerain Township. The 1871 county history does record physical evidence of much older Native occupation inside the township: on the farm of John Kershner Jr. (son of the first white settler) stood 'a model mound, thirty-five feet high,' and on the west bank of Salt Creek an earthen fort 'in the shape of a half-moon,' with a large gateway and a circular earthwork connecting the half-moon enclosure to the ancient earth fort. The book names no culture or period for them, though their general form is consistent with Ohio's Adena and Hopewell mound-and-earthwork tradition. The same chapter records that a settler called 'David C. Bolous, the hermit' was taken prisoner by Native forces near the Maumee River while serving as a scout with General Arthur St. Clair in 1791, and lived among them until the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. For the county-wide sweep of prehistoric cultures, the historic nations and the treaties that ceded Ross County land.

• Mound and earthwork on John Kershner Jr.'s farm, west bank of Salt Creek (mound|earthwork) — Colerain Township, Ross County, on Salt Creek, on the farm inherited by John Kershner Jr., not dated by source; unnamed and unattributed to a specific culture (ia903204.us.archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1789 — David C. Bolous, a bachelor hunter from the Kanawha country of Virginia, comes to the Hocking caves and hunts bear, wolf and panther, selling skins and furs to traders on the Ohio; he is taken prisoner by Indians after serving as a spy with General St. Clair in 1791 and lives with them until Wayne's treaty in 1795.
2. 1796 — Daniel Kershner becomes the first pioneer settler of Colerain Township, later serving as a War of 1812 captain and, in 1836, as a state legislator.
3. 1797 — Bolous comes to Daniel Kershner's and stays until the fall of 1799, when he moves to the old earth fort on Salt Creek and builds a cabin where he lives until his death in 1802.
4. 1798 — Martin Dresback, a soldier under General Harmar, settles in the township; he lived to age 96.
5. 1799 — John May, a hunter who served in the wars of 1791 and 1812, settles in the township.
6. 1802 — David C. Bolous, a hermit hunter who had lived among the Indians as a prisoner after Wayne's campaign and settled at the old earth fort on Salt Creek in 1799, dies there; in his life he was credited with killing 96 bears, 73 wolves, and 43 panthers.
7. 1804 — Colerain Township is formed from part of Green Township on June 11; its first election is held at the residence of David Dawes.
8. 1805 — Elias Henton, a Virginia judge and noted hunter in the township since 1796, kills the last panthers and bears on the waters of Walnut Creek.
9. 1844 — Daniel Kershner, the township's first pioneer settler, dies at 84; his sons Daniel, John and Elisha become large landowners, and John owns the old stone fort and mounds on Salt Creek.
10. 1871 — The county history 'Pioneer Record of Ross County, Ohio' records Colerain Township's officers, old settlers, and antiquities, describing Adelphi as 'one of the oldest towns in the State.'
11. 1879 — The Adelphi Border News, a weekly newspaper, is founded at Adelphi; Hugh F. Egan buys it in 1883 and later serves twelve years as mayor of Adelphi.
12. 1983 — The Buchwalter House-Applethorpe Farm, at 292 Whissler Road north of Hallsville in Colerain Township, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (#83002053).
13. 2020 — The census counts 2,017 people in Colerain Township.

Stories

The mound-builders' half-moon fort on Salt Creek

When Daniel Kershner's sons inherited his farmland on Salt Creek, they found more than good bottomland. On John Kershner Jr.'s ground stood a conical mound thirty-five feet high, and on the creek's west bank an earthen enclosure shaped like a half-moon, with one large gateway and a circular earthwork running from it to a second, older earth fort nearby. The 1871 county history that records this names no builders and gives no date, calling the fort only 'ancient.' It was already a feature of the land when white settlers arrived in the 1790s, and the hermit David C. Bolous later built his cabin against the old fort's wall.

A prisoner of the Maumee wars becomes Colerain's hermit

David C. Bolous first came to the Hocking caves from the Kanawha country of Virginia in 1789, an unmarried man the county history calls 'the hermit.' He hunted the forest for bear, wolf, and panther skins, selling furs to traders on the Ohio River, then in 1791 shifted north to Fort Harmar and went out as a scout with General Arthur St. Clair's army toward the Maumee River. There Native forces took him prisoner, and he lived among them until the Treaty of Greenville closed the fighting in 1795. He made his way back to Daniel Kershner's cabin in Colerain Township in 1797, stayed two years, then in 1799 moved to the old earth fort on Salt Creek and built a cabin against its wall, living alone until his death in 1802. By the county historian's count he had killed ninety-six bears, seventy-three wolves, and forty-three panthers over his lifetime.

Local history sources: ia903204.us.archive.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · ross.ohgenweb.org · archive.org

Every historic place in Ross County on the full map

Eight wells in the buried Teays River Aquifer, in the Scioto valley north of Chillicothe The water here

• Ross County Water Co. Inc54% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Kingston Village37% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Laurelville, Vlg Of9% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-09-15

Cite this page