Lynchburg

How Lynchburg began

Lynchburg sits astride the Highland-Clinton county line on the East Fork of the Little Miami River, a site that was still a Shawnee encampment under Tecumseh when Kentucky rangers fought Highland County's worst recorded battle with Native Americans there in 1792. Coleman Botts and Andrew Smith platted the village in 1830 and named it, by the best-documented account, for Lynchburg, Virginia, the home of an early settler. It grew through the 19th century around milling and, after 1855, a whiskey distillery that by 1910 was one of the region's largest, and it is now the site of Ohio's only wooden covered bridge connecting two counties.

Platted 1830, by Coleman Botts and Andrew Smith.

Where the name comes from

Two accounts survive: one holds that Lynchburg was named for a defeat suffered by settlers at the hands of Native Americans in 1792; the other, generally favored, holds that many of the village's settlers came from Lynchburg, Virginia, and named their new town after their former home.

Before the town

The site of Lynchburg was occupied by a large Shawnee encampment under Tecumseh's leadership until about 1806. In 1792, a mounted party of Kentuckians led by Simon Kenton, pursuing Native raiders who had crossed into Kentucky, burned cabins and stolen horses, reached the encampment near the future village and found themselves outnumbered; in the fighting that followed — remembered as Highland County's worst battle between Indians and settlers — Alexander McIntyre was killed, and scarred, notched trees and the remains of campfires and weapons reportedly marked the site for years afterward. The land had passed out of Native ownership at the Treaty of Greenville (1795), signed by the Shawnee, Wyandot, Lenape (Delaware), Miami, Ottawa and other nations, three years after this fight.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Lynchburg site (Tecumseh's encampment and the 1792 battle) (camp|battle) — at or near the present village of Lynchburg, on the East Fork of the Little Miami River, occupied until c. 1806; battle in 1792 (timesgazette.com)

Timeline

1. 1792 — Simon Kenton leads a mounted party of Kentuckians to the Shawnee encampment on the future Lynchburg site in pursuit of raiders; outnumbered, the Kentuckians are attacked and Alexander McIntyre is killed in what is remembered as Highland County's worst fight between Indians and settlers.
2. 1806 — About this year, the Shawnee encampment under Tecumseh that had occupied the Lynchburg site is given up.
3. 1830 — Coleman Botts and Andrew Smith plat the village of Lynchburg.
4. 1855 — John Bowen, from the Pricetown area, begins building a distillery at Lynchburg; it grows over the next 60 years into the Freiberg and Workum (F&W) whiskey distillery.
5. 1870 — Builder John C. Gregg completes the Lynchburg covered bridge over the East Fork of the Little Miami River for $3,138.66, connecting Highland and Clinton counties.
6. 1870 — The village's population is recorded at 476.
7. 1910 — The F&W distillery at Lynchburg is processing 3,000 bushels a day with storage for more than 100,000 barrels, employing coopers, engineers and bottlers.
8. 1963 — The Lynchburg covered bridge faces removal but is preserved after community advocacy.
9. 1976 — March 16: the Lynchburg Covered Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
10. 1980 — The census records 1,205 residents.
11. 2023 — The Lynchburg covered bridge is renovated and rededicated at Ruth Cramton Memorial Park.

Stories

The fight at Tecumseh's camp

Before there was a village, the ground where Lynchburg now stands held a large Shawnee encampment on the East Fork of the Little Miami, and its leader for a time was a young Tecumseh. In 1792, Kentucky raiders had crossed the Ohio River, burned settler cabins and run off horses; a mounted company of Kentuckians under the frontiersman Simon Kenton rode north in pursuit and came upon the encampment near the future townsite. They found the force there far larger than they expected and were driven back in the fighting that followed. Alexander McIntyre was killed, and for years afterward travelers reported scarred and notched trees and the burned-out remains of campfires and weapons marking the ground. It stands as the worst recorded clash between Native Americans and settlers in Highland County's history, and it happened on the same low ground where, thirty-eight years later, Coleman Botts and Andrew Smith platted a peaceable milling village and named it for a town in Virginia.

A covered bridge between two counties

In December 1870, bridge builder John C. Gregg finished a wooden covered bridge over the East Fork of the Little Miami River at Lynchburg for $3,138.66, built to carry traffic across the river that also marks the Highland-Clinton county line. It is Ohio's only surviving covered bridge that connects two counties. The bridge nearly came down in 1963, when county officials weighed replacing it, but local advocacy kept it standing, and it underwent a full renovation in 2023, marked with a rededication ceremony at the village's Ruth Cramton Memorial Park.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · visithighlandcounty.com · timesgazette.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Every historic place in Highland County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Lynchburg Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Public libraries (1)

Police stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 5 of 5 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• Fiscal emergency: declared 1988-04-19, released 1995-10-17. source
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-09-02

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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