Jefferson Township, Adams County

How Jefferson Township, Adams County began

Jefferson Township, in eastern Adams County on the Scioto County line, was organized in 1806 from the old Iron Ridge Township and named for President Thomas Jefferson; with 50,450 acres it was the county's largest township in 1880 and 1900. Hunters and squatters were on Ohio Brush Creek and Scioto Brush Creek by about 1796, and Philip Lewis built a saw and grist mill at the mouth of Blue Creek that year or the next. The log Moore's Meeting House, begun in the winter of 1800 on Scioto Brush Creek, is described in the county histories as the first Methodist meeting house in Ohio. Brush Creek Furnace (1811) at Cedar Mills, the timber trade and, from the 1870s, white burley tobacco on the hillsides shaped the township, which doubled its vote in a decade as tobacco growers arrived from Brown and Clermont counties.

Settled 1796, platted 1874, incorporated 1806, by James and Joseph Williams came about 1796 and Philip Lewis in 1796-97; William Wamsley laid out Wamsleyville in 1874; the township was organized in 1806.

Where the name comes from

Named for Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States, when the county's townships were reorganized in 1806.

Before the town

Neither the 1880 atlas nor the 1900 county history records a Native village, mound or trail within Jefferson Township. The 1900 history describes the region at settlement as a hunter's paradise of buffalo, elk, deer, bear and wild turkey that drew hunters before farmers, but names no Native occupants.

Timeline

1. 1796 — James and Joseph Williams, hunters and squatters, built a cabin on the east side of Ohio Brush Creek near the later Cedar Mills Pike crossing (the 1880 atlas dates James Williams's arrival to about 1792).
2. 1797 — Philip Lewis settled on Blue Creek near its mouth on Scioto Brush Creek and built a saw and grist mill the same year (land records put him there in 1796).
3. 1797 — A Methodist society was organized at Joseph Moore's cabin on Scioto Brush Creek, described in the 1900 history as the first in Ohio and the Northwest Territory (the 1880 atlas says 1799).
4. 1800 — On August 6, Rev. Henry Smith of the Scioto Circuit proposed a meeting house at Scioto Brush Creek; the log Salem Chapel, later Moore's Meeting House, was begun that winter and held its first quarterly meeting in August 1801.
5. 1806 — Jefferson Township was formed from Iron Ridge Township, with elections ordered at the house of Philip Lewis.
6. 1807 — Surveyors working on a stream in the township sent a man named Armstrong to Graham's Station in Kentucky for whiskey, which he carried back in a cedar churn, and they named the stream Churn Creek.
7. 1811 — Brush Creek Furnace was built on Cedar Run by Paul and McNichol of Pittsburgh; it ran until about 1839-40.
8. 1817 — In July a cloudburst on Churn Creek raised it about twenty feet and flooded Scioto Brush Creek, sweeping away crops and a sheep pen with two of Lazalel Swim's sons on its roof.
9. 1830 — The last bear killed in the township was shot by William Williams near the mouth of Blue Creek in the fall.
10. 1844 — Blue Creek post office was established, and the present mill at Cedar Mills, begun in 1842 by William K. Stewart and John Fisher, began operating.
11. 1869 — Wamsley post office was established with William Wamsley as first postmaster.
12. 1874 — William Wamsley laid out Wamsleyville on January 15 in nineteen in-lots, on Scioto Brush Creek about a mile from the Scioto County line.
13. 1875 — Between about 1875 and 1885 growers from the burley tobacco districts of Brown and Clermont counties moved in to plant white burley on the township's hillsides.
14. 1880 — Rev. A.D. Singer dedicated a new frame church on the site of Moore's Meeting House, with a pulpit made of sixteen native woods inlaid with the dates 1800-1880.
15. 1880 — The township's population was 3,444, up from 938 in 1840; Henry Howe recorded that its vote had doubled from 500 to 1,000 in ten years through cheap land and immigration.

Stories

Moore's Meeting House

Joseph Moore, a Methodist, settled on Scioto Brush Creek in the late 1790s on land later owned by Oliver Jones, near the present Blue Creek. A Methodist society formed at his cabin, and the 1900 county history holds it to be the first organized in Ohio and the Northwest Territory, and says it was likely visited in 1797 by Dr. Edward Tiffin, later the state's first governor. Rev. Henry Smith, who organized the Scioto Circuit in 1799, wrote that on August 6, 1800, the society proposed a meeting house because a private house could not hold the week-day congregation. The small log building, called Salem Chapel and later Moore's Meeting House, stood on Breedlove Run about a quarter mile from Scioto Brush Creek; it was begun in the winter of 1800 and held its first quarterly meeting in August 1801. The county histories call it the first Methodist meeting house in Ohio. In 1880 a frame church was dedicated on the site, surrounded by the pioneer burying ground.

The flood of 1817

In July 1817 a cloudburst struck the Churn Creek country, and the creek is said to have risen twenty feet, spilling into Scioto Brush Creek. Lazalel Swim, who lived on the creek on the farm later owned by his grandson Samuel B. Wamsley, saw the storm coming and sent his two young sons to pen the sheep in a building in the bottom. The water broke through between the house and the pen, and Swim called to the boys to climb onto the roof, which they did, pulling up a favorite dog. The flood carried the pen away in the dark and lodged it in a drift of rails and logs against sycamores near the site of Wamsleyville. The boys spent the night there and were found the next morning; the 1880 atlas adds that the dog led their father to them.

How Churn Creek got its name

The 1880 atlas tells that in 1807 a party of surveyors working along a stream in the Iron Ridge hills pooled three dollars and sent a man named Armstrong, who lived nearby, across the Ohio to Graham's Station in Kentucky for three gallons of whiskey. On the way he killed a deer and carried its hide and hams to the station. Having brought nothing to carry the liquor in, he traded the deerskin and meat for a cedar churn, filled it, and packed it back to the camp. The surveyors named the stream Churn Creek on the spot, a name it keeps.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Scioto Water Inc. - Pond Run56% of residentsOhio River
• Adams County Regional Wd31% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Scioto Water Inc.-sr12512% of residentsOhio River
• Portsmouth City1% of residentsOhio River

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 1 of 1 passed.

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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-09-10

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