Killbuck

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How Killbuck began

Killbuck, on Killbuck Creek in the southwest of Holmes County, began with Abraham Shrimplin's cabin and trading post (1809 by one account, 1810-11 by Howe), was called Shrimplin and then Oxford, and was incorporated as Killbuck in 1882. A mill stood on the creek by 1821, goods went down the creek to Coshocton and the Ohio & Erie Canal, and the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus Railroad brought a depot, stores and a flour mill. The creek and village are named for a Lenape (Delaware) chief called Killbuck; G. F. Newton's 1876 centennial history says the river was named for the old chief who was the father of Captain Killbuck (Gelelemend), that is Bemino (John Killbuck Sr.), though other web sources name Gelelemend himself. The village peaked at 937 people in 1980 and had 810 in 2020.

Settled 1809 or 1810-11 (Abraham Shrimplin), incorporated 1882 (as Killbuck; earlier called Shrimplin, then Oxford); Wikipedia says the village was 'established' in 1874, by Abraham Shrimplin and his brother Samuel; later promoted by John Duncan, who bought the mills and the farms that became the depot area.

Where the name comes from

Named for the creek, which carries the name of a Lenape (Delaware) chief Killbuck. G. F. Newton's 1876 centennial address says the Delaware called the river Killbuck 'after the old chief, Captain Killbuck's father', and Wikipedia's Killbuck article likewise names Bemino (John Killbuck Sr.); the Gelelemend article and touringohio.com instead say the village is named for Gelelemend (John Killbuck Jr., about 1737-1811), the son. The village itself was called Shrimplin and then Oxford before being incorporated as Killbuck in 1882.

Before the town

Killbuck Creek and the village carry the name of a Lenape (Delaware) chief called Killbuck. Newton's 1876 history places Killbuck's Town near the northern edge of Holmes County and the White Woman's Town at the mouth of the Killbuck on the Walhonding on a 1764 map, calls the valley the hunting ground of Gelelemend (Captain Killbuck), and says the river was named for the old chief who was Captain Killbuck's father. Gelelemend (John Killbuck Jr.), born about 1737 or 1741 on the Lehigh River, served as chief at the Lenape capital of Coshocton, which Colonel Daniel Brodhead's expedition destroyed in 1781; he joined the Moravian mission at Salem, Ohio in 1788, was baptized William Henry, and died in 1811 in Goshen Township, Tuscarawas County. Newton adds that Col. William Crawford's column of May 1782 camped at the big spring on the Killbuck near Holmesville (Howe misdates it 1781), that an Indian traveling the valley found Jonathan Grant sick in his cabin in 1809, and that Tom Lion, a Delaware, was the last Native resident, with a wigwam on Lion's Run north of Berlin. Abraham Shrimplin kept a trading post where Native travelers traded, according to touringohio.com. The Greenville Treaty line of 1795 ran diagonally across Holmes County. No mound, village site or trail within the village itself is recorded.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware).

• Coshocton (Lenape capital, Gelelemend's seat) (village) — Coshocton, downstream on the Walhonding-Muskingum, destroyed by Brodhead's expedition in 1781, 1700s (en.wikipedia.org)
• Killbuck's Town (village) — Killbuck Creek near the northern boundary of Holmes County, on a 1764 map, 1764 (archive.org)
• White Woman's Town (village) — Mouth of the Killbuck on the Walhonding, home of Mary Harris and Eagle Feather from soon after 1740, 1740s-1760s (archive.org)
• Crawford's camp at the big spring (camp) — Killbuck valley near Holmesville, night of May 30, 1782, 1782 (archive.org)
• Shrimplin's trading post (other) — Killbuck Creek, site of the present village, c. 1809-1810 (touringohio.com)

Timeline

1. 1781 — Gelelemend, chief at the Lenape capital of Coshocton, saw it destroyed by Col. Daniel Brodhead's expedition.
2. 1782 — Col. William Crawford's 400 volunteers camped on May 30 at the big spring on the Killbuck near Holmesville; a sick man died that night and was the first white burial in the county.
3. 1788 — Gelelemend joined the Moravian mission at Salem, Ohio, and was baptized William Henry, the most prominent convert in the Lenape community.
4. 1809 — Abraham Shrimplin and his wife built a crude cabin on Killbuck Creek in early spring and planted corn; his brother Samuel followed, and Abraham later opened a trading post (Howe dates his settlement to 1810-11, farther south on Shrimplin Creek).
5. 1811 — Gelelemend, the chief for whom the creek is said to be named, died in Goshen Township, Tuscarawas County.
6. 1821 — A mill capable of sawing lumber and grinding corn was erected on the creek.
7. 1825 — Holmes County's first court met at Millersburg in February 1825 and the commissioners organized the county's townships in June; Killbuck Township is among the townships so organized.
8. c. 1852 — The Cleveland, Zanesville & Cincinnati Railroad was built to Millersburg and construction then stopped for want of funds.
9. c. 1857 — John Duncan bought the Killbuck Mills, the Joseph Uhl farm and the Uhlery farm in expectation of the railroad's extension; the depot of the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus was later built on the Uhlery land and much of the village on his purchases.
10. 1874 — Wikipedia gives this as the year Killbuck was established; John Duncan retired and moved to the village the same year (he died July 12, 1878).
11. 1880 — Killbuck counted 262 residents (the earliest figure Wikipedia lists); the township had 1,375 (up from 906 in 1840).
12. 1882 — The village, earlier called Shrimplin and then Oxford, was incorporated as Killbuck.
13. c. 1885 — A few years after incorporation, the first oil well in Holmes County was drilled at Killbuck.
14. 1888 — Killbuck stood on the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus Railroad six miles southwest of Millersburg with a Methodist Episcopal and a Disciples church and a school census of 142.
15. 1930 — Killbuck's population reached 703, up from 400 in 1910, and peaked at 937 in 1980.
16. 2002 — After operating its own police department since 2000, the village council voted 5-1 in March to abolish it for financial reasons; the Holmes County sheriff now patrols under contract.
17. 2020 — Killbuck had 810 residents.

Stories

Two Killbucks, one creek

The village takes its name from the creek, and the creek from a Lenape chief called Killbuck, but which one is disputed. G. F. Newton's 1876 centennial history and Wikipedia's village article say the creek honors the elder Killbuck, Bemino (John Killbuck Sr.), the father of Captain Killbuck; Wikipedia's Gelelemend article names the son, John Killbuck Jr. (about 1737-1811), who led the Turtle clan of the Unami Lenape from the Coshocton capital, saw it burned by Brodhead in 1781, and in 1788 joined the Moravian mission at Salem, where he was baptized William Henry. His great-grandson John Henry Kilbuck became a Moravian missionary in Alaska.

Three names and a railroad bet

Abraham Shrimplin and his wife planted corn on the creek in the spring of 1809 and then wintered at an upstream settlement; a mill rose in 1821, and the little town was called Shrimplin, then Oxford, and only in 1882 Killbuck. Its fortunes turned on the railroad. About 1852 the Cleveland, Zanesville & Cincinnati line reached Millersburg and stopped, and about 1857 the self-taught John Duncan, who had had twenty-nine days of schooling, bought the Killbuck Mills and two farms betting that it would be extended. It was: the depot went up on his land and the village around it. Duncan also fought a water-wheel patent suit for ten years, refusing a $50 settlement, winning at the U.S. Supreme Court and finally in Cleveland.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · touringohio.com · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · hmdb.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Killbuck Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-11-25

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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