Franklin Township, Ross County

How Franklin Township, Ross County began

Franklin Township lies in southeastern Ross County on the west bank of the Scioto River, a triangle of rich bottoms, terraces and broken hills. The county commissioners set it off from Scioto and Pee Pee townships on September 9, 1806, with the polling place at Benjamin Foster's house; the Foster brothers from Maryland, with Richard Foster usually named first, were its first settlers. The Ohio and Erie Canal ran along its river front, with the Three Locks and the State Dam on the Scioto, and the Norfolk and Western station at Higby followed. It has an old Indian burying ground, small prehistoric works and a deep basin, a National Register farmhouse, the Higby House, and 1,439 residents in 2020.

Settled 1796-1798 (the Foster brothers from Cumberland, Maryland; Richard Foster is named first settler in Finley's 1871 history, Rev. John and Thomas Foster in Bennett's 1902), incorporated September 9, 1806 (set off from Scioto and Pee Pee townships by the Ross County commissioners; boundaries fixed September 8, 1814), by The Foster family, Richard Foster perhaps first.

Where the name comes from

Neither Wikipedia nor the county histories say why the commissioners chose Franklin; it is one of twenty-one Franklin Townships in Ohio. Bennett's 1902 history prints the 1806 order creating 'Franklin township' without a reason.

Before the town

Franklin's pioneer histories record Native sites on the Scioto bottoms. James Davis told Finley (1871) that on his father's farm there had been an old Indian burying ground of about twenty acres, mostly washed away by the river, where human bones and beads were found; he knew of four or five ancient works of different shapes on the farm, and a salt spring and deer lick. Colonel John Foster said Indians were 'very plenty' when the Fosters first settled on the river and had a trail along the Scioto that stayed visible for many years. About two miles from Davis's farm Finley saw a circular basin ten to twenty feet deep and 50 to 60 feet across that he thought the aborigines had dug. Bennett (1902) says the Mound Builders left no works of great interest here, but names an enclosed work about seventy-five feet square with rounded corners near Higby and a deep circular basin a mile and a half away on the pike, deeper when first seen, perhaps for storage. The township lies in Virginia Military District land, and no source consulted ties a named nation to these sites.

• Indian burying ground on the Davis farm (burial) — high bank of the Scioto on the James Davis farm, Franklin Township; originally about twenty acres, mostly lost to river erosion, prehistoric or early historic; undated (archive.org)
• Indian trail along the Scioto (trail) — up the Scioto valley through Franklin Township, visible for many years after the 1790s settlement (archive.org)
• Enclosed work near Higby (earthwork) — near Higby station, about 75 feet square with rounded corners, prehistoric; undated (archive.org)
• Circular basin near the Higby pike (other) — a mile and a half from the Higby enclosure on the pike; 50 to 60 feet across, once 15 to 20 feet deep, prehistoric; undated (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1796 — Colonel John Foster's father explores the Scioto by canoe from the Ohio, according to the colonel; a John Foster 'with a large family of motherless children' from near Cumberland, Maryland, is said by the 1917 county history to have settled in Franklin in 1796 and died in 1800.
2. 1798 — Colonel Foster says his father emigrated from Cumberland County, Maryland, in 1798, settled first at Piketon, and then moved to the farm on the Scioto where Colonel Foster later lived, building the first hewed-log house in the township, still standing in 1871.
3. 1801 — On August 4 John Foster, the future colonel, is born in Franklin Township; he lives more than seventy years in the same house.
4. 1806 — On September 9 the Ross County commissioners lay off Franklin Township from parts of Scioto and Pee Pee townships; the polling place is the house of Benjamin Foster.
5. 1808 — James Davis's father settles on the high banks of the Scioto and in 1815 moves to the Franklin farm; he is later a flatboatman to Natchez and New Orleans.
6. 1814 — On September 8 the part of Franklin east of the Scioto is attached to Jefferson Township, fixing the Scioto as the eastern border.
7. 1817 — Joseph Hern, a former soldier of Napoleon from Germany, settles near the Three Locks and State Dam, where he keeps a grocery on the canal bank.
8. 1830 — About this year Foster Chapel is built on James Davis's farm, a Methodist chapel; Rev. John Foster, a captain in 1812, had been the township's first preacher.
9. 1842 — James C. Foster, great-grandson of the first John Foster, is born on May 18; he becomes a Union major and recruits the first company of Black soldiers raised in West Tennessee.
10. 1869 — A post office named Alma opens in the township; it closes in 1904.
11. 1871 — Finley's Pioneer Record reports an oil well bored 700 feet deep on the Davis farm that failed to strike oil, and a salt well bored by General McArthur at the mouth of Stony Creek that was abandoned.
12. 1878 — A post office named Higby opens; it closes in 1933.
13. 1979 — The Higby House, on Three Locks Road south of Chillicothe, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 29 (ref. 79001933).
14. 2020 — The census records 1,439 residents in the township, which has no municipality.

Stories

A family that arrived motherless

The Foster family is the township's founding story, though its sources disagree about its first names. Colonel John Foster told Finley in 1871 that his father explored the Scioto by canoe in 1796 and emigrated in 1798 from Cumberland County, Maryland, first to Piketon and then to the farm on the Scioto, where he built the first hewed-log house. Bennett (1902) says Rev. John Foster and his brother Thomas, sons of John Foster Sr. of Piketon, were the first white settlers, but notes that the Pioneer Record names Richard, one of five brothers, as first. The 1917 history says a John Foster came with a large family of motherless children in 1796 and died in 1800, leaving six sons. Rev. John Foster, born 1771, was a captain in the War of 1812 and the township's first preacher; his nephew Col. John Foster, born August 4, 1801 in the house where he lived seventy years, represented Ross County in the legislature in 1848 and had forty-five grandchildren.

Three Locks and the canal that came and went

Three Locks, at the south end of Franklin Township, takes its name from three locks on the Ohio and Erie Canal and the State Dam across the Scioto that supplied the canal with water. Thomas Tomlinson was the first lock-tender after the canal opened, and his brother Richard kept the first grocery at what Bennett calls a place of public resort; the dam, nearly a hundred yards long, drew fishing parties, and Joseph Hern, who had served under Napoleon, kept a grocery there and entertained guests 'in the best style.' The canal was the township's only outlet for grain, cordwood and tan bark in 1871, since there were no pikes and the roads were bad. Wikipedia's stub says only that Three Locks was on the canal. The railroad later followed the river, with a station at Higby.

The river farm with an Indian burying ground

James Davis told Finley that his father settled on the high banks of the Scioto in 1808 and moved to the Franklin farm about 1815. On that farm was an old Indian burying ground of about twenty acres, worn away over the years by the river until it was almost gone, where the family found many human bones and beads. There were also four or five ancient works of different shapes and sizes, a salt spring and deer lick, and the Methodist Foster Chapel, built about 1830 and still sound in 1871. Davis, who followed the river as a flatboatman to Natchez and New Orleans, selling cargo and boat and walking home, held township offices most of his life. A company drilled 700 feet for oil on his land without result.

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

Every historic place in Ross County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Ross County Water Co. Inc43% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Chillicothe City42% of residentsScioto Buried Valley Aquifer (Teays Valley system) wells
• Waverly City12% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Lake White2% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Pike Water, Inc.-plant2% of residentsTeays Valley Buried Valley Aquifer (wells near Jasper)
• Kingston Village0% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)

Fire and EMS stations (2)

High-hazard dams (2)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-19

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