Fultonham

How Fultonham began

Fultonham is a small village in western Newton Township, Muskingum County, laid out by John Porter and Henry Hummell in 1815 as Uniontown and renamed in 1828 for Robert Fulton, inventor of the first commercially successful steamboat. Newton Township's own pioneer history reaches back to 1797, when Jacob Smith entered land there -- a locality the 1882 county history calls a favorite resort of the Shawnee, with abundant game and fish. Even after the post office and academy took the Fultonham name, local usage lagged: an 1880s academy prospectus still located itself 'at Fultonham, now known as Uniontown.' Thomas A. Hendricks, the 21st Vice President of the United States, was born there in 1819. Population has ranged from a low-20th-century dip to a 1980 peak of 281, standing at 115 by the 2020 census.

Platted 1815, by John Porter and Henry Hummell (as Uniontown), by John Porter and Henry Hummell; Porter also kept the first store and tavern.

Where the name comes from

The village was platted in 1815 as Uniontown by John Porter and Henry Hummell. Its post office, opened under the Uniontown name, was renamed Fultonham in 1828, honoring Robert Fulton, inventor of the first commercially successful steamboat. Local usage did not follow the official change quickly: an 1880 prospectus for the Fultonham Academy still described the school as located 'at Fultonham, now known as Uniontown,' suggesting residents kept calling the place by its older name well after the post office and academy carried the new one.

Before the town

The 1882 county history states directly that the locality that became Newton Township 'was a favorite resort of the Shawanese Indians, game and fish being abundant' -- a township-wide description, not a claim about a specific village, camp, or mound at Fultonham itself. No source found names a specific Native site, trail, or encounter at Fultonham.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1797 — Jacob Smith enters the west half of section twenty-three, town fifteen, range fourteen -- the first recorded land entry in what becomes Newton Township; he actually settles the land in 1802, having come from Bucks County via Loudoun County, Virginia.
2. 1800 — Andrew Crooks and his wife Mary, natives of Berkeley County, Virginia, settle near the future site of Newtonville; John Axline, from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, settles the same year.
3. 1800 — Andrew Crooks donates ground for the township's first school, taught by a Scotsman, William McElree; the building becomes known as 'the school house up Buckeye' or the Springer School House.
4. 1812 — Jacob Funk sets up a forge where Uniontown now stands about this year; the 1892 history says he made swords for the War of 1812 and dies from which some of the script then in circulation was printed. William Bush opens a blacksmith shop near him.
5. 1815 — Uniontown is laid out by John Porter and Henry Hummell, who also keeps the first store and tavern; several houses had already been built on the site before the plat.
6. 1815 — S. Lenhart bores the township's first salt well just south of the future Uniontown site, but finds salt cannot be made there in paying quantities.
7. 1818 — A post office called Uniontown opens.
8. 1819 — Thomas A. Hendricks, later the 21st Vice President, is born September 7 near Fultonham; the 1892 history says his father John Hendricks had an early tannery near the site of Uniontown, and the family moves to Indiana in 1820.
9. 1828 — The village and post office are renamed Fultonham, for steamboat inventor Robert Fulton.
10. 1833 — Newton Township, in which Fultonham sits, has three churches, two or three salt works, seven sawmills, six flouring mills, and one physician.
11. 1855 — An Independent Order of Odd Fellows lodge is instituted in Fultonham, with ten charter members including P. H. Grimsley and Isaac Wilson.
12. 1880 — The Fultonham Academy is chartered, with Rev. B. F. Thomas as president of its board; its prospectus locates it 'at Fultonham, now known as Uniontown.'
13. 1892 — Uniontown (Fultonham station and post office) is described as an incorporated village of about 400 residents, the township's chief trade and shipping point, seat of Fultonham Academy, with Muskingum Lodge No. 368, Ham Gardner Post No. 545 G. A. R., and Newton Lodge No. 278 I. O. O. F.
14. 1900 — The village's population is recorded at 245.
15. 1980 — Population reaches its recorded peak of 281.
16. 2020 — Population is recorded at 115.

Stories

A steamboat man's name on a landlocked village

Fultonham sits well inland, on the western edge of Muskingum County, with no navigable water running through it -- yet its name honors Robert Fulton, the engineer whose steamboat Clermont made commercial steam navigation practical in 1807. The village started life in 1815 as Uniontown, laid out by John Porter and Henry Hummell, who also ran its first store and tavern, and kept that name for its post office until 1828, when both the post office and the community were officially renamed for Fulton. The old name did not disappear quietly: an 1880 prospectus for the new Fultonham Academy still felt the need to explain that the school stood 'at Fultonham, now known as Uniontown' -- meaning that more than fifty years after the rename, people on the ground were apparently still calling their town by its original name. Fultonham later produced its own claim to national distinction: Thomas A. Hendricks, born there in 1819 before his family moved to Indiana, went on to serve as the 21st Vice President of the United States under Grover Cleveland.

A township remembered as Shawnee hunting ground

Long before Jacob Smith entered the first recorded claim in 1797, the 1882 county history says, this stretch of Jonathan's Creek country 'was a favorite resort of the Shawanese Indians, game and fish being abundant.' The area's earliest white arrivals -- Smith himself, and Andrew and Mary Crooks, who settled near the future Newtonville in 1800 -- left little other record of that presence beyond the observation itself; no named village, trail, or burial site within the township survives in the sources checked. The county history's brief line is nonetheless one of the few pieces of documented Native history tied to this particular corner of Muskingum County rather than to the county as a whole.

A tannery, a forge and a future Vice President

The 1892 history of Muskingum County notes that John Hendricks, 'father of the late Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana,' early had a tannery near the site of Uniontown, on Jonathan's Creek. His son was born on September 7, 1819, in the neighborhood and the family left for Indiana the next year; Thomas A. Hendricks became governor of Indiana and the 21st Vice President of the United States. Close by, about 1812, Jacob Funk set up a forge on the site of the future village. The same history says he turned out presentable swords for the War of 1812 and engraved dies from which some of the paper 'script' then circulating in the country was printed. Pottery, tanneries, a clothier's works advertised in the Zanesville Express in 1818 and several mills made the Jonathan's Creek valley an early industrial strip.

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

Wells in a buried-valley sand-and-gravel aquifer in the Muskingum River floodplain, about one mile north of Duncan Falls along State Route 60 The water here

• Maysville Regional Water99% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• Muskingum County Water - Se1% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2019: county board of elections.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-14

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