Madison Township, Columbiana County

How Madison Township, Columbiana County began

Madison Township, organized June 12, 1809, is the largest of the southern tier of Columbiana County townships and the only one that kept its original six-mile-square shape. A Carpenter family settled at West Point in 1797, and from 1802 Scottish Highland emigrants filled a belt of land ten miles long that the 1879 county history calls the Scotch settlement; their Yellow Creek Presbyterian congregation dates from the first years of settlement. West Point and Glasgow had post offices from 1836 and 1837, and Williamsport was platted in 1835. West Point was also the scene of a killing in 1797-98 recorded as the last bloodshed between Native people and settlers in the area and, on July 26, 1863, of the capture of Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan. The township had 2,922 residents in 2020.

Settled 1797 (Carpenter family at West Point); Scotch settlement from 1802, platted 1835 (Williamsport); 1852 (Glasgow), incorporated June 12, 1809 (township organized), by Carpenter family (West Point); Scottish Highland emigrants (Scotch settlement); Columbiana County commissioners (township).

Where the name comes from

No source we reviewed gives a documented origin for Madison Township's name; Ohio has twenty townships named Madison, most commonly understood to honor James Madison, though we could not confirm that specific attribution for this township.

Before the town

The 1879 county history reports that a Carpenter family settled at West Point in 1797, and that soon after, Capt. Whiteyes, a 'noted Indian chief,' stopped at their dwelling intoxicated, quarreled with a son of the house, a lad of nearly seventeen, and chased him with an uplifted tomahawk. The youth turned and shot him, and Whiteyes died of the wound. Because it was peacetime, the young man was arrested and tried at Steubenville under territorial law before justices of the peace; he was cleared as having acted in self-defense, and fears that the death would provoke hostilities proved unfounded. County histories later called it the last bloodshed between Native people and settlers in this part of Ohio. The source does not give Whiteyes's nation or home. The same history records an alarm of 1812 or 1813 that turned out to be a false report, and describes Native people in the township after settlement mostly as visitors to settlers' doors, which is the settlers' view only. The township lies within the region ceded under the 1785 Treaty of Fort McIntosh and confirmed by the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.

• Capt. Whiteyes killing site (tradition) (other) — Near West Point, Madison Township, 1797 or 1798 (genealogytrails.com)

Timeline

1. 1797 — A Carpenter family settles at West Point, believed by some county historians to be the first settlement in Columbiana County.
2. 1797 or 1798 — The killing of a Native man remembered as Capt. Whiteyes near West Point is recorded in county histories as the last bloodshed between Native people and settlers in the area.
3. 1801 — The ship Curlew lands Scottish Highlanders at Baltimore, among them James McKenzie, who settles in Madison in 1807; Alexander Cameron and Alexander Chisholm are taken off the ship by an English press-gang.
4. 1802 — Andrew McPherson and other Highlanders settle the 'Scotch settlement,' a tract ten miles long and three to five miles wide, and Alexander McIntosh opens his cabin for Presbyterian worship.
5. 1805 — The first communion of the Scotch settlement is held in a tent on John Campbell's place, according to one account, and the Associate Presbyterian congregation of West Beaver is organized about the next year.
6. 1809-06-12 — Madison Township is organized, the only township of the county's southern tier to keep its original six-mile-square territory; the first year's tax is $35.70.
7. 1810 — John Guthrie builds the township's first grist-mill, on Brush Run, and Henry Brough builds another on the west fork of Beaver Creek near West Point; before this the settlers carried their grain to Beaver's Mills.
8. 1811 — The first township election, for justice of the peace and constable, is held at the house of Jacob Vanfossan on section 23; Richard Gilson is chosen justice.
9. 1815 — William McLane builds a bridge over the creek near Brough's mill, at what is now West Point.
10. 1827 — Yellow Creek Presbyterian Church, incorporated in 1825, builds its first church; it is replaced in 1878 by the present building with a 90-foot spire.
11. 1835-08-15 — William Crawford, who built the first mill in that neighborhood, has Williamsport platted.
12. 1836 — West Point becomes a post office with Jacob Stewart as postmaster; Glasgow, platted by William McBane in March 1852, had received its own office in 1837 with John McBane as first postmaster.
13. 1863-07-26 — Following defeat at the Battle of Salineville that morning, Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan and his remaining roughly 400 men are finally captured that afternoon near West Point, ending Morgan's Raid.
14. 2020 — The census counts 2,922 people in Madison Township.

Stories

The afternoon Morgan's Raid ended at West Point

By July 26, 1863, Confederate cavalry commander John Hunt Morgan had led his men on a three-week, 1,000-mile raid across Indiana and Ohio, harassing Union rear areas and drawing thousands of pursuing troops after him -- but his force, once 2,462 strong, had dwindled to about 400 exhausted men. That morning Union cavalry caught and defeated the column at the Battle of Salineville, a few miles from West Point in Madison Township; that same afternoon, Federal forces under Major General Ambrose Burnside's overall command finally ran Morgan himself to ground near West Point, ending the raid for good. Morgan and his men were held briefly in Wellsville before being sent, unusually for Confederate officers, to the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus rather than a standard prisoner-of-war camp -- a small Columbiana County crossroads briefly at the center of one of the Civil War's most-followed cavalry chases.

The Scotch settlement and the press-gang

The first families of Madison Township came from the Scottish Highlands, and the belt they filled, ten miles long and three to five wide, is still the 'Scotch settlement' in the 1879 county history. Angus McBane, who settled in 1801 in what is now Liverpool Township, sent home such a good report that George Ogilvie, Alexander McIntosh and William Forsyth followed him. The crossing could be dangerous: Alexander Cameron and Alexander Chisholm, aboard the Curlew in 1801, were taken with nine other Scotsmen by an English press-gang and forced into the navy. Chisholm was released after two years because of illness and finally reached Madison; Cameron served sixteen years and won his freedom only by escaping. In 1804 another party bound for Baltimore was landed at Charleston, South Carolina, during a yellow-fever epidemic, took ship again and was wrecked, though the passengers got ashore with the loss of one life, and a later attempt brought them to the settlement.

A false alarm in 1812

In 1812 or 1813 William McIntosh, who was somewhat deaf, was visiting friends in the north of Madison Township when he thought he heard talk of an expected Indian raid. He hurried home and spread the news that the Indians were close at hand. Neighbors hid their valuables, gathered at certain houses to make a stand, and some left the township for the river settlements. For twenty-four hours the district was in a state of fear, until it came out that McIntosh had mistaken a casual reference to Indian misdeeds elsewhere for a warning about this neighborhood. The 1879 historian took the episode as a measure of how insecure the settlers felt while the War of 1812 was on.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Lisbon Village52% of residentsGroundwater wells (6 wells)
• East Liverpool City45% of residentsOhio River
• Buckeye Water District - Ohio River3% of residentsOhio River
• Columbiana County-county Home Rd0% of residentsEast Cold Run Reservoir & Spring Valley Reservoir (Cold Run Creek)

Fire and EMS stations (2)

High-hazard dams (2)

Shale and injection wells (2)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2024: 2 of 2 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

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

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