Empire

How Empire began

Empire, in Knox Township on the Ohio River at the mouth of Jeremy's Run, grew from a sugar-maple camp known as Slumptown into Shanghai (about 1850, after a sailor's Shanghai chickens), then Olive City and McCoy's, the last for Lewis K. McCoy, who laid out the town in 1857 on the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad. Fire-clay, sewer-pipe and terra cotta works, especially after 1885, brought growth, and the town took the name Empire City, shortened to Empire when the state proclaimed it a village on June 7, 1897. Its population peaked at 703 in 1930 and was 232 in 2020. The village's best-known native son is Don Sutherin, a Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductee who also played in the NFL.

Settled 1799 (James McCoy, in Knox Township generally); 1821 (Alexander Stewart's purchase), platted 1857, as 'Shanghai,' by Lewis K. McCoy; surveyed by William F. Simeral, incorporated June 7, 1897 (proclaimed a village), by Lewis K. McCoy laid out the 1857 plat as Shanghai.

Where the name comes from

Doyle's 1910 history gives the sequence: Slumptown (a sugar-maple camp), Shanghai (from Capt. James Young's Shanghai chickens, about 1850), Olive City (for Lewis K. McCoy's youngest daughter), McCoy's (the station and 1862 post office, for McCoy), then Empire City and Empire, after the Empire sewer-pipe plant, when the company offered bricks for a public building on condition that the town be renamed.

Before the town

No source reviewed names a specific Native American village, mound or documented encounter within Empire itself. The village lies within Knox Township, settled from 1796 onward, five years after the Treaty of Greenville (1795) opened the region. That history includes the documented Ohio River ferry and hotel run by veteran-scout Michael Myers Sr., a Knox Township contemporary of James McCoy.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1799 — James McCoy settles in what becomes Knox Township; the future village site later carries the McCoy family name as McCoy's Station.
2. 1821 — Alexander Stewart Sr. buys from a man named Buttenburg the part of the future Empire above Stewart Street; Lewis K. McCoy later secures a large tract on the south side, said to have come from a lucky lottery ticket.
3. c. 1850 — Capt. James Young, a sailor, arrives with a flock of Shanghai chickens, probably the first in the county, and the hamlet, earlier called Slumptown after its sugar-maple camp, takes the name Shanghai; Abraham Peters keeps a tavern in Young's old house from 1855.
4. 1856 — The Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad arrives and names its station McCoy's after Lewis K. McCoy, who gave the right of way; the hamlet is also called Olive City for a time, after McCoy's youngest daughter.
5. 1857 — Lewis K. McCoy lays out the town, originally named Shanghai, with William F. Simeral as surveyor; Samuel Henry builds the first house on the platted town lots.
6. 1858 — The first schoolhouse in Empire is built, with Casterman Quinti as teacher.
7. 1862 — A post office named McCoy's is established, with John Atkinson as first postmaster; he is killed in the Civil War and his widow, L. S. Atkinson, later holds the office until 1899.
8. 1867 — Lewis K. McCoy shoots Joseph McDonald of New Cumberland at the ferry landing on April 6, after an old feud; convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life, he is pardoned a few years later.
9. 1873 — The Methodist Protestants, the town's first church organization, form a class in June under Rev. F. A. Brown and dedicate a 32 by 50 foot frame church on December 28.
10. 1880 — The village, by now known as McCoy's Station, holds about 200 residents, a Presbyterian church, a post office (Letitia Atkinson, postmistress), terra cotta works, two sawmills, a hotel and several shops -- all clustered at the mouth of Jeremy's Run on the west bank of the Ohio.
11. 1885 — The Empire Fire Clay Company is organized on February 11 by W. H. Garlick and others of Toronto, and its sewer-pipe and terra cotta works soon employ 75 men; the company offers bricks for a public building if the town takes the name Empire City.
12. 1886 — A post office called Empire begins operating.
13. 1890 — The hamlet of Empire City first appears in the census, with 441 people; it has 509 in 1900.
14. 1897 — The secretary of state proclaims Empire a village on June 7, dropping the word 'city'; the first village election is on April 4, 1898, with E. S. Minor as mayor.
15. 1930 — Village population peaks at 703.

Stories

Four names for one river landing

Few Jefferson County villages changed names as many times as Empire. The 1880 county history catches it in its second identity: laid out in 1857 by Lewis K. McCoy as 'Shanghai' -- fifty-by-one-hundred-foot lots on streets sixty feet wide, surveyed by William F. Simeral -- the place had, by the time the history was written, become known simply as McCoy's Station, with roughly 200 residents, a Presbyterian church, terra cotta works, two sawmills and a hotel clustered at the mouth of Jeremy's Run. It later carried the name Olive City before the name Empire finally stuck, arriving with a post office in 1886. Each of those names likely reflected a different phase in the settlement's small commercial life along the Ohio River, though the sources consulted do not explain the specific reasoning behind the Shanghai, Olive City or Empire names. What is certain is that the village's modern identity, formalized with incorporation in 1897, was its fourth attempt at a lasting name, and it has kept that one for well over a century since.

Slumptown, Shanghai, Olive City, McCoy's and Empire

Joseph B. Doyle's 1910 county history calls Empire an old settlement but a young town, with more names than any other place in Jefferson County. It began as a sugar-maple camp and, once the grove was cleared, Slumptown. About 1850 Capt. James Young, a sailor, brought a collection of Shanghai chickens, probably the first in the county, and the hamlet became Shanghai. For a while it was Olive City, for the youngest daughter of Lewis K. McCoy, who laid out the town in 1857. The Cleveland & Pittsburgh named its 1856 station McCoy's, and a post office of that name opened in 1862. After the Empire sewer-pipe plant arrived in 1885, the company offered the town enough bricks to build a public building if it would be renamed Empire City; the town incorporated as a hamlet under that name, and in 1897 the state made it the village of Empire, dropping 'city'.

The shooting at the ferry landing

On Saturday evening, April 6, 1867, Lewis K. McCoy, the landowner who had platted Shanghai, was waiting with a carbine at the station when the evening train brought Joseph McDonald of New Cumberland, across the river, back from Steubenville. The two had an old feud. McDonald started toward the ferry landing, words were exchanged and McCoy fired, killing him almost at once. McCoy gave himself up and was tried for first-degree murder at the November term, with the best legal talent engaged on his side; after a week-long trial and an all-night jury session he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life. He was pardoned a few years later and lived at home until his death, though the trial and later mismanagement had dissipated what had been a considerable fortune. Doyle notes that Shanghai and neighboring Newburg afterward became among the most law-abiding places in the county.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · postalhistory.com

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