Dunham Township, Washington County

How Dunham Township, Washington County began

Dunham Township occupies rural land in southwestern Washington County along the Ohio River, opposite Wood County, West Virginia, and is the only Dunham Township in Ohio. The county commissioners established it on June 5, 1855, from Warren and Barlow townships and neighboring land, and it was named for the pioneer Dunham family: Jonathan Dunham, a lineal descendant of the Rev. Jonathan Dunham, the first preacher at Martha's Vineyard, bought land on the Little Hocking in 1803 after losing his way while following a range line. His son Amos, the family's last male heir, later gave a vivid account of the earliest days, with wolves howling nightly and killing fourteen of his sheep in one night. Elihu Clark's cabin on school section sixteen was probably the first improvement. The township had no village or saloon at its founding; sandstone quarries and grindstones, begun about 1820, and coopering were its industries, and the post offices Veto (1850), Dunham (1857-1902) and Briggs (1875) served it. The 2020 census recorded 2,581 residents.

Settled 1803-1804 (Jonathan Dunham), incorporated June 5, 1855, by the Washington County commissioners, cut from Warren and Barlow townships; boundary with Warren adjusted October 19, 1855 on petition of William P. Cutler, Dean Briggs, and others.

Where the name comes from

The township is named for the pioneer Dunham family. Jonathan Dunham, in whose family's honor it was named, was a lineal descendant of the Rev. Jonathan Dunham, the first preacher at Martha's Vineyard; each generation had left only one son to carry the name, and at the death of Jonathan's son Amos the Dunham name in the township became extinct. It survived only through Amos's sister Betsey, who married Asahel Hollister.

Before the town

No Native village, mound, trail or treaty site specific to Dunham Township was found in the sources checked.

Timeline

1. c. 1800-1803 — Elihu Clark, a carpenter from Belpre, makes what was probably the first improvement in the present township, on school section sixteen, followed by Benjamin and Hezekiah Bickford and, in 1803, the squatter Lemuel Cooper.
2. 1803 — Jonathan Dunham, attempting to follow a range line from Turkey Hen Creek to Belpre, loses his bearings and follows a creek to a piece of land that catches his fancy; he buys it on long credit at two dollars an acre and divides it among himself, Amos Dunham and Amos Delano.
3. 1804 — Amos Dunham begins working his lot, living alone in a small camp through the week and losing fourteen sheep to wolves in a single night.
4. 1805 — Nathan Cole opens a tavern near the head of Neil's Island with a room big enough for dancing; later sold to James Harvey, it hosts the first Presbyterian meeting between Belpre and Marietta.
5. 1807 — Benoni Lewis, a former ocean-ship captain, settles on the Ohio side after five years in Virginia; his family becomes a large landholder along the river.
6. 1811 — Benjamin Ellenwood, a native of Maine, settles on school section sixteen with his three sons; Samuel later buys the first wagon used on the east branch of the Little Hocking.
7. c. 1814 — A school is built by subscription on the Goddard farm, the first and for long the best in the present township.
8. 1816 — Asahel Hollister, who had married Betsey Dunham, settles from Litchfield County, Connecticut, in what was then Warren Township, beginning a family line that continues into the 1880s.
9. 1817 — Joseph Tilton, from Belpre, makes the first improvement west of the Little Hocking valley.
10. c. 1820 — Quarrymen open the first sandstone quarries and begin cutting grindstones, floated by flatboat to Cincinnati; Scottish families, including the Harveys and Shaws, arrive the same year.
11. 1820 — A log school house is built near the forks of the Little Hocking; Amos Dunham teaches seventy pupils there that winter.
12. 1822-1823 — An epidemic strikes the settlement; Benedict Rathbun, who came in 1816, is its first victim.
13. c. 1830 — Methodists erect a frame building on the Little Hocking, used occasionally until 1855.
14. 1837 — A temperance society of the leading citizens is organized and meets in homes and school houses.
15. c. 1850 — Farmers' plowing exhibitions grow into an agricultural fair near Veto post office, held annually until the second year of the Civil War.
16. 1850 — Veto, the first post office within the present township, opens with William Chevalier as postmaster.
17. 1855-06-05 — The county commissioners establish Dunham as an independent township with corporate powers, cut from Warren and Barlow townships along the Ohio River; a boundary adjustment with Warren follows on October 19.
18. 1855-06-30 — The first township election is held at the school house near the forks of the Little Hocking.
19. 1857 — A post office named Dunham opens in the township.
20. 1871 — William P. Cutler, who runs the main quarries, builds Cutler Chapel for the United Brethren quarrymen and deeds it open to all denominations; the township also builds a town house for elections.
21. 1875-03 — Briggs post office is established for residents along the river, with William Calder as postmaster.
22. 1902 — The Dunham post office closes after 45 years of operation.

Stories

Alone with the wolves

Amos Dunham left behind his own account of the township's founding year, delivered decades later at a celebration marking Dunham Township's establishment. 'In the spring of 1804, I commenced working on my lot and lived in quite a retired manner. I slept in my little camp a short distance back of where Mr. Goddard now lives; cooked my own pork and potatoes; kept a good fire in front of my camp at night; laid myself down on my bed of leaves and was soon hushed to sleep by the united melody of wolves and owls; and from Monday morning till Saturday night was not disturbed by the sight of a single human being.' The wolves howled from hill to hill until the woods seemed full of them, and he lost fourteen sheep in one night, one killed twelve feet from where he slept. For several years afterward wild turkeys crowded his wheat fields until the ground was black with them, and deer came in droves to take what the turkeys left.

Captain Moore goes to jail

Captain James Moore was in Dunham by 1810, his cabin standing below the narrows on the Ohio. A keelboat man who pushed his boat up the Kanawha for salt and made longer freighting trips, he often came home with a loss rather than a profit. Imprisonment for debt was legal, and on his way to Marietta he would stop at the door of Judge Cutler and say that he was on his way to jail and the judge must go his bail; if the judge was out, he left word that he had gone to jail and the judge should come the next day, which the judge generally did. Moore was also a master of breaking and swingling flax, and the settlement's women, who waited on his promises, lost patience. Bishop Morris occasionally preached at his house, and Moore led the first Methodist class there until he left the county about 1830.

Grindstones for Cincinnati

The township's hills are sandstone, and about 1820 Averal Harris, a Mr. Schwan and Oren Newton opened the first quarries, at a time when no one wanted building stone but grindstones sold. Men cut the stones by hand and floated them on flatboats to the Cincinnati market, walking home afterward. Alexander Calder opened a fine quarry in the river ledges, and as navigation improved the trade grew; by 1870-71 the Ohio River Stone Company, William P. Cutler and others worked the Little Hocking quarries, and O'Connor and Blue ran the largest. Stone from the Calders' quarry supplied the piers for the railroad bridge at Parkersburg, and operators estimated the Dunham and Warren ledges had already yielded over $300,000. Cutler built his chapel in 1871 for the laborers the quarries drew.

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

Ohio River Valley Aquifer (own wells, Porterfield wellfield) The water here

• Belpre City55% of residentsGroundwater wells (5 wells)
• Little Hocking Water Association, Inc.45% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (own wells, Porterfield wellfield)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Shale and injection wells (4)

Superfund sites (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

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 2026-03-10

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