Hopewell Township, Muskingum County

• Dillon LakeBuilt 1960 · 1,560 acres

How Hopewell Township, Muskingum County began

Hopewell Township sits on the western edge of Muskingum County, bordering Perry and Licking counties. It was organized February 3, 1812, cut from Madison and Falls townships over a local remonstrance, with its first election held at the house of John Colvin. Before that, the 1882 county history records a small band of Native families -- a dozen or so -- camped a short distance up Kent's Run within the township, who left for the west as white settlement began around 1803-04, with a few lingering until 1808-09. Its start as a settlement came when the National Road reached the area; a post office called Hopewell opened in 1830, and by 1833 the settlement had 75 residents, four churches and three physicians. The unincorporated village of Hopewell sits at the township's center, with the village of Mount Sterling hosting the township hall and part of Gratiot village extending into the township's western edge. The Ohio Canal Groundbreaking Site, sometimes associated with this area through a shared ZIP code, is in fact miles away in Heath, Licking County, not within this township.

Settled 1806 (William Hamilton and Rev. Robert Manley), incorporated February 3, 1812, cut from Madison and Falls townships, by Petition of inhabitants of Madison and Falls townships to the Muskingum County Commissioners, over a remonstrance; granted regardless.

Where the name comes from

Wikipedia states the township is named for the prehistoric Hopewell archaeological culture. That claim is very likely reversed. The 1882 county history's account of the township's 1812 organization simply records that petitioners asked for a new township 'by the name of Hopewell,' without explaining why -- showing the name was already in local use well before 1812. The archaeological term 'Hopewell culture' was coined only after Warren K. Moorehead excavated the Hopewell Mound Group in Ross County in 1891-92; that site was itself named for Mordecai Hopewell, whose family then owned the farm it stood on, and Moorehead's application of the name to the wider culture followed from there (per Wikipedia's own 'Hopewell tradition' article). A name coined roughly eighty years after this Muskingum County township organized, for an unrelated farm in another county, cannot be the source of this township's 1812 name. The true origin of Hopewell Township's own name (a common place name in several states, often carrying a hopeful, aspirational sense) is not established by any source we found.

Before the town

The 1882 county history states that 'the red men of the forest roamed over this country, and had a camp a short distance up what we call Kent's Run' within Hopewell Township -- a small band, a dozen families or so, who left for the west as white settlers began arriving around 1803-04, though some lingered as late as 1808-09. This is a site-specific record, naming a location (Kent's Run) inside the township itself, though the source does not name the band's nation. The wider county lies in territory ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Greenville (1795), whose boundary line ran along the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum River well to the north; Wyandot and Delaware (Lenape) people are recorded as living, hunting, and traveling through the Zanesville area in the same period. The township's own name is not evidence of a documented Hopewell-culture site on its ground.

• Native camp on Kent's Run (camp) — A short distance up Kent's Run, Hopewell Township, Muskingum County, pre-1803, with some presence to 1808-09 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1806 — William Hamilton and his son-in-law, Rev. Robert Manley, remove from Maryland and make the township's first improvement, on the farm where Asbury Chapel now stands; Manley lives there until his death in 1810.
2. January 1, 1807 — Major William Bonnifield, having left Shenandoah County, Virginia the year before, settles with his family on Poverty Run.
3. June 1807 — William Coffman, Jr., born at his family's camp, is recorded as the first white child born in the township.
4. February 3, 1812 — The Muskingum County Commissioners grant a petition, despite a remonstrance, to cut Hopewell Township from Madison and Falls townships; the first election is held at the house of John Colvin.
5. September 1, 1817 — The part of Falls Township lying in the first township of the ninth range of military lands is annexed to Hopewell Township.
6. February 22, 1819 — The part of Hopewell Township east of Licking Creek is transferred to Licking Township, completing the township's present boundaries.
7. 1830 — A post office named Hopewell is established in the township after the National Road reaches the area.
8. 1833 — The Hopewell settlement is recorded with 75 inhabitants, four churches, and three physicians.
9. 1982 — The Tavener-Sears Tavern on Main Street in Mount Sterling, within the township, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (April 29, 1982).

Stories

A camp on Kent's Run, and the missing link that followed it

The 1882 county historian, piecing together Hopewell Township's earliest years from what survivors could still recall, wrote of 'the missing link in the chain of our history that connects the aboriginal inhabitant with those we call first settlers.' What he meant was this: a small band of Native families, a dozen or so, had a camp a short distance up Kent's Run, within the township, and left for the west as white settlement began arriving around 1803 or 1804 -- though a few lingered, reluctant to leave their hunting grounds, as late as 1808 or 1809. The white hunters who first came to know them, he wrote, were themselves drawn by the same game the departing band had followed, walking the same paths into new hunting country before the farmers and their cabins arrived behind them.

The tavern at Mount Sterling

Mount Sterling, the small crossroads community that today hosts the township hall, has one building on the National Register: the Tavener-Sears Tavern on Main Street, listed April 29, 1982. Roadside taverns like this one served travelers on the area's early wagon roads before the railroad era, offering food, drink, and a bed for the night; the building's survival into the Register is one of the few physical markers left of Hopewell Township's earliest years of settlement.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Muskingum County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Zanesville55% of residentsMuskingum River valley aquifer (wells)
• Muskingum County Water - Se31% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• South Zanesville5% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Maysville Regional Water4% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• City of Heath4% of residentslocal wells
• Greenlawn Estates MHP1% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• Villa Vista Mobile Home0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Bridges rated poor (3)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Money issues on the ballot since 2017: 1 of 2 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 0 of 1.

Ballot issues

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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-07-29
• Financial Audit, 2021 to 2022, released 2025-04-15

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