Hopewell Township, Perry County

How Hopewell Township, Perry County began

Hopewell Township, organized about 1810 in northern Perry County, takes in the village of Glenford and, along Jonathan Creek, the Glenford Fort earthworks, the best preserved of Ohio's fourteen Hopewell-culture ridgetop stone enclosures. The township is otherwise a farm and mill community, crossed by the 1883-built Parks Covered Bridge, and its small commercial life is remembered in the 1919 Glenford Bank building on the village's Main and Broad streets.

Where the name comes from

Not documented in the sources checked; one of five townships named Hopewell in Ohio. It is not established whether the township's name is connected to the Hopewell archaeological culture whose type site (the Hopewell Mound Group) is in Ross County, or is a coincidence of a common place name; do not assume a connection without a source.

Before the town

Hopewell Township holds one of the most significant Native American sites in Perry County: Glenford Fort, a roughly mile-long, heart-shaped dry-laid stone wall enclosing about 24 to 26 acres atop a sandstone ridge above Jonathan Creek, built using an estimated 58,000 pounds of stacked stone. A stone mound inside the enclosure was excavated in 1987 and produced Adena-culture spear points, potsherds, a copper bracelet and pipe fragments, along with postholes from an oval building at the mound's base; radiocarbon dating put the mound near 280 BC, at the end of the Adena era (roughly 800 BC to AD 100), with the surrounding wall and 'squircle' enclosure built later in the classic Hopewell style (roughly 100 BC to AD 500) by people generally considered the Adena's cultural descendants in Ohio. It is counted among fourteen known ridgetop stone enclosures of this kind, the best preserved of them. No historic-era (1700s) Native village or trail is separately recorded for the township in the sources checked.

Nations recorded here: Adena culture, Hopewell culture.

• Glenford Fort (earthwork) — Hopewell Township, on a ridge above Jonathan Creek near Glenford, Adena mound c. 280 BC; Hopewell stone wall and enclosure, roughly 100 BC-AD 500 (sharinghorizons.com)

Timeline

1. c. 280 BC — A stone mound is built at the site later called Glenford Fort, near the end of the Adena era; it later yields spear points, potsherds, a copper bracelet and pipe fragments.
2. c. 100 BC-AD 500 — A roughly mile-long stone wall is built by Hopewell-culture people around the ridgetop, enclosing about 24-26 acres in a heart-shaped 'squircle' around the older mound.
3. 1810 — Hopewell Township is organized in northern Perry County.
4. 1883 — The Parks Covered Bridge, a multiple kingpost truss bridge, is built by William A. Dean and J. T. Tracey over a branch of Jonathan Creek on County Road 33, north of Somerset.
5. 1987 — Excavation of the stone mound inside Glenford Fort recovers Adena artifacts and postholes of an oval structure.
6. 1990 — The Glenford Bank building, at Main and Broad streets in Glenford, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
7. 2017 — The Arc of Appalachia purchases the 65-acre Glenford Fort tract to preserve it; it is now managed with the Perry County Soil and Water District.

Stories

A wall of stone instead of a mound of dirt

Most Hopewell and Adena ceremonial sites in Ohio are earthen mounds and embankments, but at Glenford the builders used what the ridge gave them: sandstone bluffs formed a natural base, and generations of Native workers piled roughly 58,000 pounds of loose stone on top to raise a wall that runs nearly a mile around the hilltop, enclosing some 24 to 26 acres above Jonathan Creek. Radiocarbon dates from a mound inside the wall point to about 280 BC, the tail end of the Adena period, while the wall and the enclosure's rounded 'squircle' shape follow the classic Hopewell style that came after. A 1987 dig into the mound turned up Adena spear points, pottery fragments, a copper bracelet and pipe fragments, along with postholes marking an oval building that once stood at its base. Ohio has fourteen known ridgetop stone enclosures like it; Glenford Fort is considered the best preserved.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · sharinghorizons.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org

Every historic place in Perry County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Somerset Village Of74% of residentsSomerset Reservoir + Lake St. Joseph
• Glenford Village15% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Thornville, Village Of4% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Northern Perry Co.water #14% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Buckeye Lake, Village Of3% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Licking County Harbor Hills1% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Maysville Regional Water0% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• Muskingum County Water - Se0% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• Roberts Trailer Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Power plants (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

Public schools (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-08-12

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