Huntington Township, Brown County

How Huntington Township, Brown County began

Huntington Township, in the county's southeastern corner along the Ohio River, was organized prior to Brown County's own erection and named, according to the 1883 county history, in honor of Samuel Huntington, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Ellis Palmer, who settled near the mouth of Big Three-Mile Creek shortly after the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, is credited as the township's first settler; Nathan Ellis later founded the first ferry across the Ohio and laid out the upper part of the village of Aberdeen.

Settled c. 1795 (Ellis Palmer, shortly after the Treaty of Greenville).

Where the name comes from

Named, per the 1883 county history, in honor of Samuel Huntington, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound or trail specific to Huntington Township is recorded in the sources checked, though the 1883 county history notes 'numerous evidences of the work of the Mound-Builders' within the township generally, without naming specific sites. The township lies within the 1795 Treaty of Greenville cession and the Virginia Military District.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Miami.

Timeline

1. c. 1795 — Ellis Palmer settles near the mouth of Big Three-Mile Creek shortly after Wayne's treaty, the township's first settler; he later builds a second cabin near what became Evans's mill dam.
2. 1796 — James Edwards moves to Ohio and buys 1,000 acres from Col. P. Slaughter, who had the grant for Revolutionary War service, building a cabin at the mouth of Fishing Gut Run at the lower end of the later Aberdeen.
3. 1797 — Benjamin Beasley builds a cabin about four miles north of the later site of Aberdeen and plants an orchard of apple, peach and pear trees, later operating a distillery to make surplus fruit into brandy.
4. 1799 — John Gray and his wife Mary move from Nicholas County, Kentucky to Huntington Township; their son Joseph, born that year on the family's land, is the oldest person still living in the township who was born within it, as of the 1883 history.
5. 1801 — March: John Evans moves his family into a cabin on the Little East Fork of Eagle Creek near the center of the township and soon opens a smith shop, believed to be the first in Huntington.
6. 1805 — One of the oldest schoolhouses goes up near the center of the township on land then owned by John Evans; George Harrison, Adam Calduward, a Mr. Swan and Samuel Ewings teach there in turn until it is abandoned about 1823.
7. 1806 — Rev. Waad, a Baptist, delivers the first preaching recorded in the township; schoolhouses and family residences serve as churches until a brick building goes up in Aberdeen around 1852.
8. 1823 — Elder Matthew Gardner begins monthly preaching on the Ohio side opposite Maysville; the church that grows from it, Bethlehem Christian Church, reaches over 400 members and he serves as its pastor for 45 years.
9. 1827-1828 — John Evans, an early settler who arrived in 1800-1801, erects a flouring mill that he operates until shortly before his death in 1858, when he sells it to his grandson Samuel Evans.
10. 1829 — Bethlehem Christian Church builds its first brick meeting house; its annual 'big meeting' on the third Sunday in May draws crowds of up to 3,000.
11. 1832 — The Huntington Presbyterian Church, organized some years earlier in private houses and schoolhouses, builds a brick church near the later Hiett Post Office.
12. 1834 — Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal Church builds a 40-by-48-foot brick church on land donated for the purpose; it is never dedicated, and a smaller frame church replaces it in 1878.
13. 1845 — The Methodist society in Aberdeen erects a brick church on Main Cross street.
14. 1860-05-21 — A storm unroofs and collapses the west gable of Bethlehem Christian Church during an evening service; no one is killed, and a new frame church is built on the site the same year.
15. 1869-06-13 — Hiett Christian Chapel is organized with 48 members; its frame church, 32 by 50 feet, is built in 1870 on the Ripley, Ironbridge and Bradysville turnpike.
16. 1880 — The township, fifth in the county in both area and wealth, is assessed at $756,139 in real and chattel property, with 651 school-age children in 15 school districts including a colored school.
17. 2020 — The census counts 2,478 people in Huntington Township, the most southerly in Brown County, which holds the village of Aberdeen on the Ohio River.

Stories

A three-inch mark at a hundred paces

John Gunsaulus, who squatted on land near the Little East Fork of Eagle Creek as early as 1803 or 1804, was remembered in the 1883 county history as one of the finest marksmen of his day. He would bet on hitting a three-inch mark off-hand at a distance of one hundred paces, and nearly always came away the winner. A man of great physical strength, he cleared enormous amounts of forest before moving to Jackson Township around 1818, where he died.

The storm that tore the roof from Bethlehem Church

On the third Sunday in May 1860, a great storm swept across the West while Bethlehem Christian Church held its communion meeting. As a dark green cloud approached with a roaring sound, half the brick church's roof blew off and the west gable crashed through the ceiling onto the men seated below. Elder Matthew Gardner, leaning against the pulpit, heard cries of "What shall I do to be saved?" above the din and believed six men had been killed. Remarkably, none had; the rubbish was cleared and the men pulled out bruised but alive, the only serious injury a broken arm suffered by a man struck by a falling rafter as he fled the building.

Elder Gardner and the wicked neighborhood

About 1823 Elder Matthew Gardner, who had been preaching at a stone meeting house on Lawrence Creek in Kentucky, began crossing the Ohio once a month to preach about twelve miles from his home, opposite Maysville. He recalled the neighborhood as famed for horse-racing, gambling, cock-fights and whisky, with no preaching on the Ohio side within ten miles; a Methodist minister who had sent an appointment found the congregation rising together and walking out. Gardner preached in cabins and schoolhouses, and in the woods when crowds grew too large, and a church was soon organized. In 1829 it built its first brick meeting house, and Bethlehem Christian Church grew to over 400 members, the largest in its conference, with Gardner as pastor for 45 years. Each May its 'big meeting' drew as many as 3,000 people, and at some of them more than a hundred joined the church.

Three ferries to Maysville

Before the Aberdeen and Zanesville turnpike, Huntington Township's link to Kentucky was by ferry. Nathan Ellis, who laid out the upper part of Aberdeen, set up the first ferry between Maysville and the township, and Evan Campbell, who had come from Redstone, Pennsylvania, opened a small hotel by it, the first in the township, and later owned half of the second steam ferry. George Edwards started another at the mouth of Fishing Gut Run, and it passed to his nephew John Rains, who ran it as a horse-boat for its last eight years. When the turnpike was completed Rains's ferry was abandoned, leaving the three that the county history names, Campbell's, Powers' and Rains'.

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

13 active wells drawing from the buried-valley aquifer along the Ohio River near Ripley; specific well-field location not separately documented The water here

• Brown County Rural Water87% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Manchester Village10% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Adams County Regional Wd3% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-18: county board of elections.

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

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