Jefferson Township, Clinton County

How Jefferson Township, Clinton County began

Jefferson Township was erected in 1839 from Clark and Marion townships in southwestern Clinton County, entirely within the Virginia Military District, and named for Thomas Jefferson. The village of Midland sits in its northwest. Charcoal kilns once stood at Klocks Crossing along the Baltimore & Ohio tracks outside Westboro. Today it is thinly populated farmland, its residents drawing water in part from the neighboring village of Blanchester's century-old municipal system.

Incorporated 1839, by Clinton County Commissioners, from Clark and Marion townships.

Where the name comes from

Named for President Thomas Jefferson, one of twenty-four Jefferson Townships in Ohio.

Before the town

No site-specific Native American record was found for Jefferson Township. The township lies in the same Virginia Military District country used historically by the Shawnee after their return to Ohio following the Beaver Wars. Nothing tied to a named village, trail, or earthwork inside this township's boundaries was located.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

Timeline

1. c. 1812 — Samuel Jackson, a hunter from Tennessee who had killed two panthers and many deer and bears in 1801 on Rocky Fork, builds the first cabin in the township on the farm later owned by John Holaday.
2. c. 1812 — A party of salt-boatmen camping near Hale's Branch while walking home from Pittsburgh admires a beautiful oak forest; one of them, Hale, returns to build a cabin and clear a field before moving on, and Jesse Hockett soon becomes the permanent settler there.
3. 1816-1817 — William Hammer kills a large black bear in 1816 near the later John Simcox house and settles there in 1817.
4. 1817-1818 — William Hammer and John Thompson build a saw mill on the West Fork, the first mill in the township; a freshet washes out its log dam, whose foundation logs were still visible in 1881.
5. 1823 — Thomas Abbott teaches the first school in the township in a cabin on the west side of the West Fork, near the site of Westboro.
6. c. 1825 — The Society of Friends forms the first church in the township, meeting in a schoolhouse north of the West Fork; after the 1828 division the Orthodox Friends build a log house with a burying-ground on land from Daniel H. Moon.
7. c. 1830 — Peter Shick, a Baptist minister, makes the first settlement north of where the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad now runs.
8. c. 1831 — William Moon builds a successful saw mill on the West Fork that runs until about 1855.
9. 1838 — The United Brethren organize a society from the Plum Run and Westboro neighborhoods, and John Hammer starts a carding machine and grist mill near the site of Westboro.
10. 1839 — Jefferson Township erected by the Clinton County Commissioners from parts of Clark and Marion townships.
11. 1839-1840 — Peyton West surveys the new township in winter, with James H. West and John W. Smith as chain carriers; the township, about 23 square miles, is organized from Clark and Marion townships.
12. c. 1844 — Schools are re-organized into a new district and a frame house is built at Westboro, ending a quarrel in which three factions each built their own schoolhouse.
13. 1850 — Lewis and Thomas Hockett build the first steam saw mill in the township.
14. 1852 — The Hillsboro & Cincinnati Railroad, the first built in the county, is completed through the township from Loveland to Hillsboro.
15. 1853 — The Friends of West Fork Meeting replace their log meeting-house with the frame house still standing in 1881.
16. 1854 — The Methodist Episcopal Church builds a brick church in Westboro.
17. 1858 — John Vandervort builds the first flouring mill, at Westboro; it is still running in 1881.
18. 1860-05-22 — A tornado breaks down and uproots much of the township's timber, blows down part of the brick schoolhouse at Westboro during school and part of the Methodist church, but kills no one.
19. c. 1868 — The Westboro Woolen Mills are built for about $7,000 and a Christian (New Light) church is built at Westboro; Wickersham & Son buy the mill in April 1874.
20. 1881-12 — The Westboro literary and social society is organized by Dr. N. B. Van Winkle and school principal John T. Bishop.

Stories

Charcoal in the woods at Klocks Crossing

Before Jefferson Township was farmland cut by the B&O tracks, charcoal kilns operated at Klocks Crossing outside the hamlet of Westboro, converting the township's timber into fuel for iron furnaces elsewhere in the region — one of the few specific industrial details that survives for this thinly documented township. The pattern was typical of southwestern Ohio's charcoal-iron economy of the 19th century, which consumed woodlots wholesale before railroads and coal made charcoal iron obsolete.

The tornado of May 22, 1860

The township was heavily timbered, and the great tornado of May 22, 1860 made havoc of it: much of the forest was broken down, torn up by the roots or bent. The storm also unroofed many houses and barns and ruined orchards. A portion of the brick schoolhouse at Westboro was blown down while school was in session, and part of the Methodist Episcopal church there, but, as the county historian noted with relief, no one was seriously injured and no human lives were lost. He called it probably the most remarkable occurrence since the township was settled. Some stock was killed in the neighbourhood. The same woods had slowed settlement for decades, being too dense and wet for easy clearing, and were burned or girdled to make way for farms.

The old soldier and the landowner

Thomas Sermon, an old Revolutionary soldier, settled in the southern part of Jefferson Township on land belonging to James Taylor of Kentucky, who would not sell it to anyone as long as the old veteran wished to stay. When a prospective buyer complained that Sermon was cutting timber where he pleased and doing no good generally, the county historian reports that Taylor replied with his usual warmth that a man who sought to dispossess an old soldier, who had gone with his life in his hand to secure the liberty they enjoyed, was not worthy of being a landowner. The land was later owned and occupied by James Clark.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Lynchburg Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

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 2025-08-19

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