Eagle Township, Brown County

How Eagle Township, Brown County began

Eagle Township was formed from territory struck off from Adams County when Brown County itself was erected in 1817, and until 1823 most of present-day Jackson Township's territory belonged to it. Jonas Sams, a survivor of Colonel William Crawford's disastrous 1782 defeat near the Wyandot villages, settled on the headwaters of Brush Creek in 1805, among the township's earliest settlers. In 1818 agents of Samuel Gist purchased a large tract in the township's western part as homes for slaves Gist had freed in Virginia, and the settlers organized a Baptist church that still stood in 1883. The township holds the village of Fincastle.

Settled 1805 (Jonas Sams, headwaters of Brush Creek), incorporated 1817, by struck off from Adams County upon the erection of Brown County.

Where the name comes from

The origin of the township's name is not recorded.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound or trail specific to Eagle Township is recorded. The township lies within the 1795 Treaty of Greenville cession and the Virginia Military District.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Miami.

Timeline

1. 1805 — Jonas Sams, who as a young man had survived Colonel William Crawford's disastrous 1782 defeat and capture near a Wyandot village, settles on the headwaters of Brush Creek in Eagle Township.
2. 1806 — William Laycock settles and builds a cabin, the only house on the road between New Market and Ripley at the time; a still-house he later builds provides brandy for Capt. Abraham Shepherd's men marching to Sandusky and Detroit in 1812.
3. 1809 — Spencer Records erects a small 'tub-wheel' water-mill on Brush Creek about two miles below the later village of Fincastle, the township's first water-powered mill, dressing his own buhr-stones from quartz found in the Sunfish Hills of Adams County.
4. 1812 — Robert Breckenridge, lately from Kentucky, builds a saw and grist mill on Brush Creek about a mile below Fincastle; it is torn down for the cost of keeping up its dam and its stones are reused in a horse mill at his home, and John McCormick later rebuilds Records's older mill.
5. 1817 — The township is formed from territory struck off from Adams County upon the erection of Brown County; until 1823 most of what became Jackson Township remained part of Eagle.
6. 1818 — Agents of Samuel Gist purchase a large tract in the township's western part as homes for slaves Gist had freed in Virginia; the settlers soon organize a Baptist association, and Rev. Charles Smith baptizes fifty persons there in a single day.
7. c. 1820 — The United Brethren, who met in private houses until now, erect a log house of worship near the later Borden Schoolhouse; another early school, the Ketterman Schoolhouse, is built nearby.
8. 1834 — The first schoolhouse is erected on the present site of the village of Fincastle, built of hewn logs with an oak-shingle roof.
9. 1835 — John Bradley builds the first house in Fincastle, on Lot No. 6 for John Frierson, who soon opens a dry goods and notion store in it.
10. 1836 — The Hillsboro & Ripley turnpike is surveyed by Williams Bros. of Cincinnati and Samuel K. Stivers; subscriptions amount to $500 in work and $1,700 in cash, and the county commissioners resolve to improve the road on June 15, 1878.
11. 1841 — The Methodist Episcopal church is built at Fincastle and dedicated by Presiding Elder W. H. Raper; the New Light or Christian church follows in 1842 and the Disciples church in 1851.
12. 1843 — Thomas Selmon and J. T. Brown build the township's first steam mill at Fincastle, replaced in 1868 by a two-and-a-half-story frame mill built by D. M. Sayers and S. W. Swain.
13. 1847 — The first frame school building in the township is built in Fincastle, at School and Cooper streets; it is used until 1881, when the South Fincastle schoolhouse is built.
14. 1852 — Township school districts are divided into subdistricts and tuition funds raised by taxation, ending subscription schools in the township.
15. 1855 — A body of Methodists organizes Crum Chapel on land donated by John Denny; its frame church of 1842 is replaced by a brick chapel in 1867.
16. 1877-08-07 — The first train of the Cincinnati & Eastern Railway passes through Eagle Township.
17. 1880 — More than two-thirds of the township's voting population had enlisted in the Civil War, and scarcely a family failed to send a father or son; eight school subdistricts serve the township, one of them the colored school of 'The Settlement.'
18. 2020 — The census counts 1,293 people in Eagle Township.

Stories

Coulter's buried piggin of silver

James Coulter came to live near his son William's new home in Eagle Township shortly after the War of 1812, building his own cabin where he lived alone and taught school for several years. He was said to possess several hundred dollars in silver, which he buried somewhere near his home before his death rather than trust to a bank. The 1883 county history records that the search for it "has caused many stones to be turned and holes dug," but as of that writing, Coulter's piggin of silver had never been found.

The Gist settlement's freed community

In 1818, agents acting for Samuel Gist purchased a large tract of land in the western part of Eagle Township to provide homes for slaves Gist had freed in Virginia. The people who settled there soon organized a Baptist association, and built a log church that still stood near the Cincinnati & Eastern Railroad, about a mile west of South Fincastle Station, when the county history was written in 1883. Rev. Charles Smith took a leading role in organizing the congregation, baptizing fifty people in a single day. Most of the settlers on the Gist lands became members of this church.

Mills on Brush Creek

Eagle Township's first settlers ground corn in oddly built hand-mills with buhr-stones, a labor-saving improvement over the pestle and mortar, and the nearest real mills before 1809 were on Cherry Fork in Adams County, near Hillsboro and near Decatur. About 1809 Spencer Records put up a small 'tub-wheel' water-mill on Brush Creek about two miles below the later Fincastle, with a single pair of stones that he dressed himself from quartz found in the Sunfish Hills of Adams County. In 1812 Robert Breckenridge, newly arrived from Kentucky, built a saw and grist mill a mile below Fincastle that was for a time the best in the vicinity, but the cost of repairing its dam finally defeated it. He tore the mill down and had a horse-mill built from its stones at his home north of the creek, while John McCormick, a Revolutionary soldier from Pennsylvania, rebuilt and improved Records's mill. Steam came to Fincastle in 1843-44.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Waynoka Regional Water and Sewer Dist37% of residentsLake Waynoka / Sycamore Run reservoirs
• Sardinia Village34% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Winchester Public Water System18% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Adams County Regional Wd10% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)

Public schools (2)

Superfund sites (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-18: county board of elections.

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 2026-04-21

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