Ludlow Township, Washington County

How Ludlow Township, Washington County began

Ludlow Township, in northeastern Washington County bordering Monroe County, was established July 17, 1819, and takes its name indirectly from a surveyor named Ludlow who ran the 'Ludlow line,' the north boundary of the Ohio Company's donation lands, which the new township was named after. Solomon 'Governor' Tice, an eccentric blacksmith-farmer-hunter nicknamed for a single vote he once received for the governorship of Virginia, was the first settler, arriving on the Little Muskingum River in 1797. Its western hamlet, Wingett Run, kept a country store, Myers General Store, that became a landmark of the area's commercial history. The Rinard Covered Bridge, built in 1876 by the Smith Bridge Company of Toledo over the Little Muskingum River northeast of Wingett Run, is a rare Smith-truss span; a 2004 flash flood destroyed the original structure, which was rebuilt in 2006. The 2020 census recorded 289 residents, and no incorporated village has ever stood in the township.

Settled 1797 (Solomon 'Governor' Tice), incorporated July 17, 1819, by petition of Joseph Dickerson, John Davis, and Kinzer D. Jolly and others.

Where the name comes from

The township takes its name indirectly from a surveyor named Ludlow, who ran the north boundary line of the Ohio Company's donation lands, known ever after as the 'Ludlow line'; when the county commissioners established the township on July 17, 1819, they named it after that boundary line, which then ran through its northern part (the township originally extended two miles further north than it does today).

Before the town

No Native village, mound, trail or treaty site specific to Ludlow Township was found in the sources checked.

Timeline

1. 1797 — Solomon Tice, Sr. -- known as 'Governor' Tice after once receiving a single vote for the governorship of Virginia -- becomes the first settler in Ludlow Township, on the east side of the Little Muskingum about two miles below Bloomfield.
2. 1819-07-17 — On petition of Joseph Dickerson, John Davis, Kinzer D. Jolly, and others, the county commissioners establish Ludlow Township, ordering its first election at the house of Daniel Hearn.
3. 1825 — 'Governor' Tice bores for salt on Fifteen Mile Creek, penetrating three hundred feet before petroleum -- which he calls the 'Devil's grease' and considers worthless -- stops the enterprise.
4. 1833 — Tice digs for silver on what becomes known as Silver Mine Run (later Campbell's Run), finds shining metal, and carries a half-bushel of it to Wheeling to sell, only to learn there that it is not silver at all.
5. 1838 — 'Governor' Tice dies at about ninety-three years of age, having lived to see seventy grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren, and having boasted throughout his life that he never once attended church.
6. 1851 — The land north of the Ludlow line is transferred to the newly formed Monroe County, reducing the township to roughly its present bounds.
7. 1876 — The Smith Bridge Company of Toledo, with H. H. Townsend as architect, builds the Rinard Covered Bridge over the Little Muskingum River northeast of Wingett Run.
8. 1976 — The Rinard Covered Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
9. 2004 — A flash flood destroys the original Rinard Covered Bridge on September 18.
10. 2006 — The Rinard Covered Bridge is rebuilt.

Stories

The governor who dug for silver and struck the Devil's grease

Solomon Tice, Sr., Ludlow Township's first settler, was a blacksmith, farmer, and hunter out of New York City who staked his claim on the Little Muskingum in 1797 and lived there until his death about 1838, at ninety-three. He carried the nickname 'Governor' for the rest of his life after once receiving a single vote for the governorship of Virginia while visiting the state -- a joke that stuck harder than any office ever could have. Tice's real passion was the sudden fortune: in 1833 he dug for silver on a stream that took the name Silver Mine Run, hauled a half-bushel of glittering ore all the way to Wheeling to sell, and there learned it was worthless. Undiscouraged, in 1825 he had already bored three hundred feet into the earth on Fifteen Mile Creek hunting for salt, only to strike petroleum instead -- a substance he had no use for and dismissed contemptuously as the 'Devil's grease,' abandoning the well rather than pursue what would later become the region's most valuable resource. He boasted he never attended church in his life, was remembered for his wit and sociability, and left behind seventy grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren by the time he died.

A bridge the river took back, and a township rebuilt

The Smith Bridge Company of Toledo, a firm that manufactured prefabricated iron and wood truss bridges for shipment across the Midwest, built the Rinard Covered Bridge over the Little Muskingum River in 1876 using the company's own patented Smith truss design -- a construction style rare enough in Ohio that the bridge earned National Register listing in 1976 on that basis alone. The river had the final say, though: on September 18, 2004, a flash flood tore the historic structure from its abutments and destroyed it outright. Rather than let the crossing disappear, the community rebuilt the bridge in 2006, recreating its historic form -- a rare case in Washington County of a covered bridge lost to the elements and deliberately restored rather than simply replaced with a modern span.

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

Every historic place in Washington County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Matamoras Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

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, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-07-25

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