Jackson Township, Jackson County

How Jackson Township, Jackson County began

Jackson Township, in the northwest corner of Jackson County, was created by the commissioners on July 1, 1816 as one of the county's first townships and named for Andrew Jackson. The land was surveyed in 1799 (Thomas Worthington and J. B. Finley) and March 1801 (Jesse Spencer). Its best-known landmark is the Leo Petroglyph, a sandstone slab carved with 37 human and animal figures, possibly by Fort Ancient people AD 1000-1650, which has had a New Deal shelter since the 1930s. The 1900 county history also records 'Camp Rock', a boulder on Salt Creek carved 'Camp of 1812'. The township had 410 people in 1840, 1,869 in 1880 and 1,214 in 2020 and has no village.

Incorporated 1816-07-01 (created by the Jackson County commissioners), by Jackson County commissioners, on the petition of the inhabitants.

Where the name comes from

Named for Andrew Jackson, as the county was; the 1900 county history groups it with Hamilton and Clinton as townships named for 'three distinguished Americans'. One of thirty-seven Jackson Townships in Ohio.

Before the town

The township's defining Native American site is the Leo Petroglyph, a sandstone panel west of the community of Leo with 37 images of human figures, animals and footprints, possibly carved by people of the Fort Ancient culture around AD 1000-1650; the slab measures about 20 by 16 feet on the edge of a Mississippian sandstone cliff and its meaning is unknown. It was listed on the National Register on November 10, 1970 and is maintained by the Ohio History Connection. No treaty or historic-era village is placed in the township; for the Shawnee and the Scioto salt licks, and the county's mounds and rock shelters.

Nations recorded here: Fort Ancient culture, Shawnee.

• Leo Petroglyph (other) — Sandstone cliff west of Leo, Jackson Township, possibly AD 1000-1650 (Fort Ancient) (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1799-08 — Thomas Worthington, assisted by J. B. Finley (later a noted Methodist preacher), surveys part of township 7, range 20, now in Jackson Township.
2. 1801-03 — Jesse Spencer surveys township 8, range 19, the rest of the future Jackson Township.
3. 1812 — General Tupper's army is supposed to have camped a night by a sandstone boulder on Salt Creek near the old Stinson tavern, later carved 'Camp of 1812' and called Camp Rock.
4. 1816-07-01 — The commissioners incorporate Jackson Township as a new township in the northwest corner of the county 'and be called Jackson'.
5. 1840 — Jackson Township's population is 410 in the federal census.
6. 1880 — Jackson Township's population is 1,869, more than four times the 1840 count.
7. 1930s — A wooden shelter is built over the Leo Petroglyph as a Works Progress Administration project.
8. 1970-11-10 — The Leo Petroglyph is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
9. 2020 — The census counts 1,214 people in the township.

Stories

Thirty-seven figures on a sandstone slab

On a low sandstone cliff west of the crossroads community of Leo, a 20-by-16-foot slab carries 37 carved images: human figures, animals and footprints. Wikipedia attributes them to the Fort Ancient culture, possibly AD 1000-1650, making them older than any European presence in the Ohio country. The Ohio History Connection maintains the site, which is sheltered under a wooden roof built as a Works Progress Administration project, and the National Register listed it in 1970. What the carvings meant to the people who made them is unknown.

Camp Rock on Salt Creek

County historian Williams visited a huge sandstone boulder beside the road near the old Stinson tavern on Salt Creek in 1895 and wrote down what he saw. It had broken off the hill centuries before and lodged on the creek bank, about fifty feet long, fifteen thick and twenty high, with the road running between rock and hill as it always had. Cut deep into the face toward the road were the words CAMP OF 1812. General Tupper and his army, he wrote, were supposed to have camped a night near it, where the creek is fordable and a spring used to flow; old citizens claimed the names of soldiers had once been carved there too, but they had worn away. A blast had taken stone from the east end for a bridge abutment a year or two earlier.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · jackson.ohgenweb.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · genealogytrails.com · npgallery.nps.gov · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Ross County Water Co. Inc62% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Jackson, City Of23% of residentsJisco Lake + Hammertown Lake (Jackson City Reservoir)
• Wellston City15% of residentsLake Rupert + Lake Alma (Little Raccoon Creek reservoirs)
• Coalton0% of residentsTeays River Buried Valley Aquifer (own wells)

Bridges rated poor (4)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

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