Linton Township, Coshocton County

• Wills Creek LakeBuilt 1936 · 900 acres

How Linton Township, Coshocton County began

Linton Township, in the southeastern corner of Coshocton County along Wills Creek, was organized in 1812 and named by James Miskimen, one of its foremost settlers and a county commissioner at the time, for the township in Virginia he had emigrated from; it is the only township of its name in Ohio. It holds the village of Plainfield, platted in 1816 and merged from three smaller plats in 1878, and the small community of Bacon; a mill and village called Linton, or Linton Mills, was built by J. V. Heslip beginning in 1847 and kept a post office until 1901 before vanishing. Low prehistoric earthworks and mounds survive faintly along Wills Creek, and an early settler recalled dealings with an Indian named Doughty who lingered in the area after 1812.

Settled 1806 (Miskimen, McCune, Addy and Jones families, north bend of Wills Creek), incorporated 1812, by named by James Miskimen, county commissioner, for his native township in Virginia.

Where the name comes from

Linton Township owes its name to James Miskimen, one of its foremost early settlers and, at the time of the township's organization in 1812, a Coshocton County commissioner. He named it, according to the 1881 county history, in honor of the township in Virginia from which he had emigrated. It remains the only township of that name in Ohio.

Before the town

The remains of prehistoric people along Wills Creek in Linton Township are not extensive but are documented: a square earthen fortification of four embankments enclosing several acres stood about half a mile southwest of Plainfield, each corner with an entrance, though plowing had nearly leveled it by 1881; a smaller circular embankment enclosing about an acre stood on the Y. J. Powelson farm farther down the creek. Two nearby mounds were opened in the 19th century, one yielding only stone relics, the other the skeleton of a person estimated at seven feet tall. No Indian village is known to have stood in the township, but hunting encampments were frequent along Wills Creek, and the 1881 county history preserves a detailed account of Doughty, an Indian who continued to frequent the area after most of his people departed around 1812 and who was eventually murdered by a white man near Zanesville.

• Plainfield square earthwork (earthwork) — about half a mile southwest of Plainfield, at the crossroads, prehistoric (undetermined) (archive.org)
• Powelson farm circular embankment (earthwork) — on the Y. J. Powelson farm, section 22, several miles down Wills Creek from Plainfield, prehistoric (undetermined) (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1806 — The Miskimen, McCune, Addy and Jones families settle the north bend of Wills Creek, the first part of the township occupied.
2. 1812 — Linton Township is organized and named by commissioner James Miskimen for his native township in Virginia.
3. 1816 — The first village called Plainfield is platted on October 10 by Thomas Johnson and Edward Wiggins, about a mile south of the present village of the same name; Johnson builds the first house, a tavern.
4. 1847 — J. V. Heslip builds a mill and bridge on Wills Creek at the site called Linton Mills; the village of Linton is laid out there two years later.
5. 1858 — A post office is established at Bacon, on Bacon Run, with John H. Sicher as postmaster.
6. 1878 — The neighboring plats of Jacobsport and East Plainfield are incorporated together as the single village of Plainfield; J. A. Mayhugh becomes its first mayor.
7. 1901 — The Linton Mills post office closes after nearly half a century.

Stories

Doughty's gun and the deadly breach of war

James Miskimen, the settler who gave Linton Township its name, was also a trader who bartered whisky and trinkets with the local Indians for hides and furs. One day, poling a canoe of goods down Wills Creek toward Zanesville with Tom Addy, Miskimen took aboard an Indian named Doughty, who grew drunk and belligerent on the whisky he found in the boat; when they put him ashore, Doughty tried to load his gun and shoot at them, but Miskimen rowed back, sprang out and knocked him down before he could fire, then threw the gun into the creek. About ten days later twelve Indians appeared at Miskimen's cabin demanding a replacement gun on pain of his life; at his wife's urging he found an old gun and handed it over, settling what the county history calls 'the deadly breach of war.' Doughty stayed in the area after his people left in 1812, entertaining himself by frightening settlers' wives and children with tales of Indian cruelty when he had been drinking, until he was eventually murdered by a white man near Zanesville.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Coshocton88% of residentsSand & gravel aquifer near Walhonding River/Mill Creek valley (wells)
• Newcomerstown Village12% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Bomac Mobile Home Park1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Bridges rated poor (1)

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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-05-13

Cite this page