Freeport

• Clendening LakeBuilt 1936 · 1800 acres
• Piedmont LakeBuilt 1937 · 2,310 acres
• Tappan LakeBuilt 1936 · 2350 acres

How Freeport began

Freeport was laid out in March 1810 by William Melton, Daniel Easly and Jonathan Bogue, on ground then in Tuscarawas County, and its plat was filed there on March 7, 1810; Harrison County was erected in 1813 and the village's post office opened in 1814. Dr. Richard Lee Mason, passing through in October 1819, called it a little flourishing village 'settled by foreigners, Yankee Quakers, and mechanics' with two taverns. It was incorporated in 1880, with Allen Jones as first mayor and Andrew H. Steadman, later known for his system of penmanship, as first clerk. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad brought it a depot, a foundry, a mill and a creamery by 1920; the population peaked at 690 in 1900 and was 321 in 2020. The John Reaves House on the public square is on the National Register.

Settled by 1806 (John Hollett and others in the surrounding township), platted March 1810 (plat filed in Tuscarawas County, March 7, 1810), incorporated 1880, by William Melton, Daniel Easly and Jonathan Bogue.

Where the name comes from

No source consulted explains the name Freeport. The earlier note that it refers to 'still water' moving produce down Stillwater Creek is not supported by Hanna's or Lewis's histories and has been dropped. Dr. Mason's 1819 diary describes the village as settled by foreigners, Quakers and mechanics, but gives no reason for the name.

Before the town

No Native village, mound, burial or battle site is recorded for Freeport in the sources consulted (Hanna's 1900 county history, Lewis's 1921 county history, the township and village chapters). What the record does show is regional. The 1785 Treaty of Fort McIntosh, signed with the Wyandot, Delaware (Lenape), Ojibwe and Odawa, claimed most of eastern and southern Ohio for the United States, though many Native leaders rejected it, and the 1795 Treaty of Greenville confirmed the cession after Fallen Timbers. Hanna notes that the first routes into Harrison County were probably old Indian trails along streams and ridge tops, and cites Archer Butler Hulbert's 1900 study of Ohio's Indian thoroughfares, which traced a 'Mingo Trail' from the Mingo Bottoms (Steubenville) to Will's Town (Duncan Falls) crossing the county a short distance south of Cadiz. The first settlers to reach Short Creek in 1796 included former government Indian scouts paid in land, and Hanna describes the county's earliest white visitors as Indian fighters, scouts and hunters from the Ohio River frontier.

Nations recorded here: Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga), Delaware (Lenape), Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1806 — John Hollett, from Maryland, is the earliest settler named for the later Freeport Township, followed by Henry Stevens, Berriman McLaughlin and Isaac Cadwallader in 1808.
2. 1810-03 — William Melton, Daniel Easly and Jonathan Bogue lay out Freeport; the plat is filed in Tuscarawas County on March 7, 1810.
3. 1814 — A post office opens at Freeport and has operated since.
4. 1816 — The Presbytery of Ohio, meeting in Washington County, Pennsylvania, receives applications for preaching supplies from Freeport in June and again in October.
5. 1819-10-19 — Dr. Richard Lee Mason, emigrating from Maryland to Illinois, notes in his diary a 'little flourishing village called Freeport, settled by foreigners, Yankee Quakers, and mechanics', with two taverns, and lots eighteen months old selling for $30 to $100.
6. 1821 — The Presbytery of Steubenville organizes the Freeport Presbyterian Church, with Messrs. Holliday, Leaper and Kincade as its first ruling elders.
7. 1824-12-06 — The Harrison County commissioners organize Freeport Township, with Athens, German, Moorefield and Washington townships, the same day.
8. 1830 — The census counts 211 people in Freeport; the village has 288 in 1850 and 387 in 1880.
9. 1860 — Joseph Allen is postmaster; the later postmasters of the next sixty years can be traced to S. C. Kelley (1886 to 1890) and D. M. Starkey, who served eighteen years.
10. 1880 — Freeport is incorporated; Allen Jones is first mayor (to 1890), Andrew H. Steadman first clerk, William Pierce treasurer.
11. 1890 — The census counts 672 people in Freeport, up from 387 in 1880; the 1900 count of 690 is the village's peak.
12. 1893 — Thomas Green founds the Bank of Freeport as a private bank; John M. Garvin and J. M. Schreiber join the partnership in 1894.
13. 1912 — A new six-room school building, costing about $18,000, is erected for the Freeport special school district.
14. 1919 — Freeport lays a new waterworks system at a cost of $18,000, financed by bonds.
15. 1920 — Lewis's county history lists a state bank, the Press newspaper, a steam flour mill of 50 barrels a day, a foundry, a creamery, a telephone company, two hotels, Bear's Den Park and a coal mine nearby; the population is 626.
16. 1977-07-15 — The John Reaves House on the public square is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
17. 2020 — The census counts 321 people in Freeport; the village is served by Lakeland Academy, a K-12 public school.

Stories

A doctor's diary of the road through Freeport, 1819

In the fall of 1819 Dr. Richard Lee Mason and his friend Dr. Hall left Philadelphia for Illinois, crossed the Ohio at Steubenville on October 15, and bought a Jersey wagon and harness for $60. On October 19 their road took them through Freeport, which Mason set down as a little flourishing village 'settled by foreigners, Yankee Quakers, and mechanics'. He thought it remarkable that a village with two taverns had nothing fit to drink, not even good water, and he noted that lots only eighteen months old were selling for $30 to $100 while farmland from Steubenville west ran from $2 to $30 an acre. The corn grew among dead trees, the log-cabin people made their own clothes, sugar and salt, and the travelers covered twenty-seven miles that day. Mason's diary, kept by his daughter in Jacksonville, Illinois, was printed in the Chicago Record in January 1897, and Hanna reprinted the Ohio portion in his 1900 county history.

Reading the mail aloud

Lewis's 1921 county history preserves a memory of how mail was handled at Freeport in the 1850s and 1860s. When a mail arrived, the postmaster put on his glasses, looked the letters over and called out the names so that he could hand each one over at once if the person was in the room. 'Here is a letter from Sal Jones to John Ross. Here John, is your dear letter,' ran the sample the old settlers gave, and the whole room learned who was writing to whom. The postmasters of the period were few: Joseph Allen in 1860, then Israel Holliday and W. P. Holliday, S. C. Kelley from 1886 to 1890, and R. M. Black, before D. M. Starkey's eighteen years.

Steadman's penmanship

When Freeport was incorporated in 1880 its first clerk was Andrew H. Steadman. Lewis's county history says that Steadman was the author of the Steadman system of penmanship, 'the present system throughout the State of Ohio', a claim the history makes without citation. The same page names the other first officers: Allen Jones, mayor (who served until 1890), William Pierce, treasurer, and councilmen William Wherry, Z. Z. Courtwright, R. M. Black, Jonathan Dick, Abraham Slonaker and F. M. Knox.

Photographs

Local history sources: archive.org · us-data.org · postalhistory.com · archive.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Every historic place in Harrison County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Freeport Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (5 wells)

Community health centers (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

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Public libraries (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2017: 10 of 10 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• Fiscal emergency: declared 1980-10-03, released 1985-05-15. source

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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