Licking Township, Muskingum County

• Dillon LakeBuilt 1960 · 1,560 acres

How Licking Township, Muskingum County began

Licking Township, on the western edge of Muskingum County in the Virginia Military Land, was organized before 1806 and settled from about 1802-1807 by David Devore, Nathan Fleming, John Ragor, Leonard Stump and Jonathan Wood. John Irvine and John Ayres laid out Irville in 1815, a Methodist church formed there about 1812, and the first post office opened at Irville in 1818 with Jared Brush as postmaster. Captain Thomas Nash laid out Nashport on the Ohio Canal in 1827 and the post office moved there about 1833-34. The township has two National Register archaeological listings, the Nashport Mound and the Locust Site, and 2,352 residents (2020).

Settled c. 1802-1807 (David Devore 1802 or 1804; Nathan Fleming 1805; John Ragor and Solomon Wood 1807), platted 1815 (Irville, by John Irvine and John Ayres); 1827 (Nashport, by Roberts brothers for Capt. Thomas Nash), incorporated township organized before 1806, by Pioneers on the Virginia Military Land: David Devore, Nathan Fleming, John Ragor, Leonard Stump, Solomon and Jonathan Wood.

Where the name comes from

Not stated in the sources consulted. Licking Creek (the Licking River) crosses the township and Licking County lies on its west; Kilbourn's 1833 Ohio Gazetteer calls the river 'Lickings or Pataskala'. Nashport, its canal village, was named for Captain Thomas Nash, who laid it out in 1827; Irville for John Irvine, who platted it in 1815.

Before the town

Kilbourn's 1833 gazetteer says Licking Township, with the towns of Irville and Nashport, had two of the largest ancient mounds in the county, within a few rods of the canal at Nashport. Everhart's 1882 history says the only mound in the township stood on John Van Voorhis's farm near Daniel Van Voorhis's house, covered in 1812 with trees up to 24 inches thick; Dr. Wheaton and Dr. McClellan dug it away with no important discoveries, and Daniel Van Voorhis planted a centennial evergreen on its summit in 1876. The National Register lists the Nashport Mound (1973) 'along the Licking River below Nashport' and, on a terrace east of Nashport, the Locust Site (33MU160, listed August 1, 1985), a Woodland-period village. None of the sources consulted says which culture built the mounds, so none is named.

• Nashport Mound (mound) — Along the Licking River below Nashport, Licking Township, prehistoric; National Register 1973 (en.wikipedia.org)
• Locust Site (village) — east of Nashport, Licking Township, Muskingum County, Woodland period (commons.wikimedia.org)

Timeline

1. c. 1802 — David Devore settled east of the later Irville (some say 1802, others 1804) and was running a mill on Devore's Run by 1814; Colonel Nathan Fleming built a cabin in 1805 on a site now in Irville.
2. 1807 — John R. Ragor, Leonard Stump (who entered 1,000 acres of Virginia Military Land and built a sawmill on Stump's Run) and Solomon Wood, who farmed on the Newark Road, settled; Jonathan Wood, a local surveyor, came by 1808.
3. 1812 — John Van Voorhis brought his family from Washington County, Pennsylvania; Jonathan Wood built the first hewed-log house at Nashport and kept the first tavern, and a Methodist Episcopal society of fifteen members organized near Irville.
4. 1813 — The earliest township record, a treasurer's book of June 3, shows a total tax levy of forty dollars; township supervisors in 1814 shared a salary of fifteen dollars, and David Devore's mill is recorded on April 20, 1814.
5. 1815 — John Irvine, who wore a wooden leg and wanted neighbors for sociability, and John Ayres laid out Irville; John Sidle's saw and grist mill and Nathan Fleming's sawmill began running and the Presbyterian frame church was built.
6. 1817 — John Van Voorhis built the first brick house in the township from brick made on his farm.
7. 1818 — The Irville post office was commissioned with Jared Brush as postmaster; Dr. Elmas Wheaton practiced in Irville and blacksmith Elias Green opened a shop.
8. 1827 — Nashport, forty acres, was laid out by the Roberts brothers for Captain Thomas Nash, second town platted in the township.
9. 1830 — The Ohio Canal was completed through Licking Township, entering at the center of the western boundary and bending north at Nashport; Jacob Rhodes built a saw and grist mill; the township counted 891 people.
10. 1833 — The post office moved from Irville to Nashport about this year (Wikipedia gives 1834 for Nashport's office); Kilbourn's gazetteer lists the township with two churches, two flouring mills, four saw mills, two physicians and two of the county's largest ancient mounds.
11. 1850 — Union Lodge No. 184, Free and Accepted Masons, was chartered on October 18 (renamed Irville Lodge in December 1853).
12. 1854 — Nashport's Methodist Episcopal church was built after 72 subscribers pledged $946.50, including $275 from the Masons, on a lot given by Captain Nash.
13. 1862 — The old Irville Presbyterian frame church, long used as a lodge room and carpenter shop, burned.
14. 1871 — Durban Lodge No. 487, Odd Fellows, was instituted on July 24 at Nashport, and the Sons of Temperance division there ran from 1870 to 1878.
15. 1880 — The township had five school districts, five churches, one water-power mill (N. F. Claypool's), a Baltimore & Ohio station at Claypool Station, and Nashport had about 300 people.
16. 1973 — The Nashport Mound, along the Licking River below Nashport, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (May 24); the Locust Site followed in 1985.
17. 2020 — Licking Township had 2,352 residents; the Nashport census-designated place had 449.

Stories

Two mounds, then one, then none

Kilbourn's 1833 Ohio Gazetteer boasted that Licking Township had two of the largest ancient mounds in Muskingum County, within a few rods of the canal at Nashport. By 1882 Everhart's county history could find only one, on John Van Voorhis's farm, which in 1812 had been thickly covered with forest trees up to two feet through. The trees had disappeared with the years and Drs. Wheaton and McClellan had dug the mound away in excavating, without any important discoveries. Daniel Van Voorhis planted a centennial evergreen on its summit in 1876. The National Register still lists a Nashport Mound along the Licking below the town, listed in 1973.

A town for a man with a wooden leg

The Methodist church made the crossroads east of Nashport prominent about 1812, and John Irvine saw his chance. He had had to substitute a wooden leg for the one his mother gave him and could not roam the countryside as in boyhood, so he was anxious to draw people together for sociability. With his deaf companion, John Ayres, he laid out Irville in 1815. Jared Brush opened a store in a hewed-log house there in 1818, the same year Irville got the township's first post office; Nathan Fleming opened the first regular store in 1825. When the canal reached Nashport in 1830, the post office followed it, about 1833.

The preacher and the forty acres

The Irville Presbyterian church was one of the first frame buildings in the township, about 1815, thirty by forty feet. Its early pastor, Rev. Prescott Smith, was deeded a forty-acre tract by David Vandenbark in return for a promise to preach to Vandenbark and his family for their natural lives. As the township told it, soon after Smith had the deed in his pocket he received a call at a good salary from another part of the country and left, so that Vandenbark and his family were left to look after their own souls while they mourned one of their choicest forty-acre lots. The church later housed the Methodist Protestants (organized 1829), the Sons of Temperance and a carpenter, and burned in 1862.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Muskingum County Water - Se95% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• Frazeysburg5% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Country Hills MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2018: 1 of 2 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked. The county's results on file run through 2021-11-02; later elections are not loaded yet.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-08-18
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-07-25

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for Licking Township, Muskingum County, Muskingum County and its school district:

• Licking Township: Renews a 1-mill property tax levy for the streets, roads & bridges of Licking Township for 5 years, beginning in 2026.

Races, candidates and every question for an address: your ballot. County offices and judges are on your county board's sample ballot.

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