Harrison Township, Ross County

How Harrison Township, Ross County began

Harrison Township lies in eastern Ross County, wrapping around the east side of Chillicothe without containing the city itself. Most of the National Register buildings tied to its 45601 ZIP code - the Canal Warehouse, the Majestic Theatre, the Chillicothe Water and Power Company Pumping Station and the rest - stand inside Chillicothe's own downtown blocks, not in the township. The township's own history is the quieter one of farms and hamlets on the county's eastern hills, drawing its water today from the city's well field in Yoctangee Park.

Where the name comes from

The township is one of nineteen Harrison Townships in Ohio, a naming wave tied to General (later President) William Henry Harrison; the sources checked do not give the specific year or vote that named this one.

Before the town

The 1871 Pioneer Record of Ross County says that the rugged hills east of Walnut Creek, adjoining Hocking County, were a noted hunting park for both Indians and white hunters, that the Indian chief Big Foot called it 'the bad ground,' the habitation of bad spirits, and that it was considered unsafe to travel through unarmed. It places the hunter Major A. McClundy at 'the old earth fort' in 1778, probably the earthwork on Salt Creek described under Colerain Township. No mound, village or trail inside Harrison Township is named. Chillicothe, on the township's border, takes its name from the Shawnee Chalagawtha.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Hopewell culture.

Timeline

1. 1778 — Major A. McClundy, a companion of Boone and Kenton, makes his headquarters at the old earth fort while hunting ten days on the waters of Walnut and Salt creeks, where he kills thirteen bears, nine wolves, six panthers and three wildcats.
2. 1796 — Nathaniel Massie lays out Chillicothe in August, on the Scioto River bottom that Harrison Township borders on the east.
3. 1798 — Samuel Hanson emigrates with his family to what becomes Harrison Township; Louis Graves, George Stanhope, Joseph Vangrundy, George Bishop and others follow among the early pioneers along Walnut and Sugar creeks.
4. early 1800s — William Pyle, a Virginia native, travels part by river and part by team to Harrison Township, secures a tract of government land, and clears a farm from the woods; James and Jane Henry, natives of Ireland, likewise settle in the township and improve a farm on Walnut Creek.
5. 1805 — The sugar-loaf hills east of Walnut Creek, covered with spruce and cedar, remain famous until about this year as hunting grounds for bear, panther, wolf, wildcat, elk and deer; the Shawnee chief Big Foot is said to have called the district the 'bad ground,' the habitation of bad spirits.
6. 1812 — Harrison Township is organized from part of Jefferson Township on December 9; its first election is held at the house of John Comber.
7. 1812 — Township men serve in the War of 1812 under Col. William Johnson, Capt. Abram Moore, Maj. Abraham Lewis and Lt. George Stanhope.
8. 1832 — Johan Bower, a Wuerttemberg German who served five years in the German army, arrives in America with his wife and three children, winters at Chillicothe and buys partly improved land in Harrison Township, where he dies in 1840; his daughter Catherine, born in the township in 1835, marries John Pyle in 1860.
9. 1836 — John Pyle is born in Harrison Township on October 23, a grandson of William Pyle, the Virginia-born pioneer who had earlier claimed government land and cleared a farm there.
10. 1871 — Harrison Township's officers are James T. Search and Hiram Creamer, justices, and Frederick Wheeland, L. Freeman and John Strauser, trustees; the township is thickly settled along the valleys of Walnut and Sugar creeks, while the high hills are too steep and poor to cultivate.
11. 1941 — Chillicothe's water treatment plant on Park Street, which serves customers including those on the township's edge, opens; the site later becomes Veterans Memorial Park.
12. 1991 — Chillicothe's current water treatment plant, next to the well field in Yoctangee Park, replaces the 1941 Park Street plant.
13. 2020 — The census counts 1,189 people in Harrison Township.

Stories

Farms cleared by hand on Walnut Creek

Away from the ZIP-coded landmarks of downtown Chillicothe, Harrison Township's own early history is a quieter one of farms cut from the woods. William Pyle, a native of Virginia, made part of his journey west by river and the rest by team, arriving in the early years of the nineteenth century to claim a tract of government land in the township; he built a cabin in the forest and spent years clearing a farm before his death there. James and Jane Henry, immigrants from Ireland, settled nearby and improved a farm on Walnut Creek; both are buried side by side in Bethel Churchyard, one of the township's early burial grounds. Their descendants intermarried with other pioneer families, including the Pyles, carrying the township's founding generation forward into the twentieth century.

McClundy and the bear

Aaron Syms told the compilers of the 1871 Pioneer Record that the abundance of game in the hills east of Walnut Creek drew daring hunters from all over, especially from Kentucky. One was Major A. McClundy, a companion of Boone and Kenton, who came in 1778 and made his headquarters at the old earth fort. On his second day his dog Sago started up a monstrous he-bear and attacked it; the bear seized the dog and made off with it in a tight hug. The major followed, fired when he could do so without hitting the dog, and only wounded the animal, which dropped the dog and turned on McClundy in a desperate close fight until he killed it with his knife. In a ten-day hunt on the waters of Walnut and Salt creeks he killed thirteen bears, nine wolves, six panthers and three wildcats. Another settler, Mr. Hanson, killed a racer snake sixteen feet long, and the Shawnee chief Big Foot called the whole district the 'bad ground' of bad spirits.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · aspace.ohiohistory.org · en.wikipedia.org · majesticchillicothe.net · epa.ohio.gov · archive.org · archive.org · ross.ohgenweb.org · archive.org

Eight wells in the buried Teays River Aquifer, in the Scioto valley north of Chillicothe The water here

• Ross County Water Co. Inc54% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Chillicothe City44% of residentsScioto Buried Valley Aquifer (Teays Valley system) wells
• Kingston Village2% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

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