Graysville

How Graysville began

Graysville sits in Washington Township, Monroe County. The county history says Daniel Gray settled the town in 1835; the village name suggests it was named for him, though the history does not say so. It supported both a Christian and a Baptist congregation by 1849, when the surrounding township counted 533 residents. The village peaked at 199 residents in 1870, one of the earliest peaks recorded among Monroe County's villages, and has declined slowly since to 70 as of the 2020 census. State Route 26 runs through as its main street today.

Settled 1835, by Daniel Gray.

Where the name comes from

The county history says the town of Graysville was settled in 1835 by Daniel Gray; it does not say the town was named for him, but the shared name suggests it.

Before the town

No Native American village, camp or mound specific to Graysville is recorded. The surrounding Washington Township hill country lay within the broader hunting and travel range of the Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware) and Mingo peoples before the Treaty of Greenville (1795), but no named site is tied to the village.

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

Timeline

1. 1816 — Joseph Cline built the first cabin in Washington Township, in whose bounds Graysville sits, in the valley of the Clear Fork; the township history says there were no settlements before that, though it also repeats an 1804 Cline settlement that belongs to Benton Township.
2. 1817 — The first church in Washington Township, a Methodist Episcopal society, was organized at Joseph Cline's house, with Rev. Robert C. Hatten preaching the first sermon; the Baptists organized the second church at Graysville.
3. 1818 — Isaac Rinard built the first grist mill in the township and Baldwin Cox a sawmill on the Little Muskingum.
4. 1832-06-05 — Washington Township was organized.
5. 1835 — Daniel Gray settled the town of Graysville.
6. 1841 — Peter McGowen organized the township's first Sabbath school, with 25 scholars.
7. 1849 — Washington Township's population reached 533, with Graysville Christian and Graysville Baptist among the four supported congregations.
8. 1870 — Graysville's population reached its recorded peak of 199.
9. 1880 — Graysville had a post office and 174 residents, four dry goods and grocery stores, two drug stores, two blacksmith shops, a furniture store, two shoe shops, a saddle and harness shop and two doctors; its two-room school enrolled 99 pupils.
10. 1880 — The census counted 1,815 residents in Washington Township.
11. 1888 — The school census for Graysville was 74; it had Christian, Methodist and Baptist churches and lay eight miles southwest of Woodsfield.
12. 1890 — Graysville's population stood at 107.
13. 1920 — The census counted 187 residents; 192 in 1930 was the highest since 1870.
14. 1990 — The census counted 89 residents, the lowest ever recorded, before a rebound to 113 in 2000.
15. 2020 — The census recorded Graysville's population at 70.

Stories

A point of considerable trade

In 1880 Graysville, eight miles southwest of Woodsfield, was in the county historian's words a point of considerable trade, with a post office, four dry goods and grocery stores, two drug stores, two blacksmith shops, a furniture store, two shoe shops, a saddle and harness shop and two doctors. Its two-room school had 99 pupils, with a primary teacher paid $27 a month and the high school teacher $35. Daniel Gray had settled the town in 1835, and by 1849 the Graysville Christian Church, with 65 members under A. A. Bunner, and the Graysville Baptist Church, with 20 under Henry Lyons, were two of the four congregations in a township of 533 people. Abram Mann, a farmer born in Malaga Township in 1817, raised nine children near Graysville; his son Ross was postmaster for twenty years, and his son M. M. Mann served as clerk of the courts. The family kept racehorses, among them Ida Mae, said to be the fastest half-mile horse in the neighborhood.

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

No water-system data is linked to Graysville's ZIP codes yet.

Fire and EMS stations (1)

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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-06-10

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