Madison Township, Vinton County

How Madison Township, Vinton County began

Madison Township, in the center of Vinton County, was part of the original Brown Township of Athens County until Hocking County's organization in 1818, then South Brown Township when Vinton County formed in 1850; on March 2, 1852 the county commissioners renamed it Madison on its residents' petition. Its first settler was a man named Wallace, followed by Abraham Bryson, William Fee and Abraham Johnson. Rough, hilly and rich in coal and iron, it grew quickly around Zaleski, a mining and railroad town founded in the 1850s, and held 2,217 people in 1880, the most of any Vinton township. The Zaleski Adena mounds lie in the village.

Incorporated 1850, by part of the original Brown Township, Athens County, until Hocking County's 1818 organization; joined Vinton County in 1850 as South Brown Township; renamed Madison in 1852.

Where the name comes from

The township was called South Brown Township from Vinton County's 1850 organization until March 2, 1852, when, on a petition from its own residents, the county commissioners changed its name to Madison. No source says whom the name honors.

Before the town

Madison Township holds the Zaleski Mound Group, three surviving Adena burial mounds (originally six) in the village of Zaleski and listed on the National Register in 1974: the Ranger Station Mound, a 14.4-foot conical mound in a community park (residents dug a cold cellar into it in the 1850s and found a skeleton, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources restored it in 1959), the privately owned Markham Mound, and the low Methodist Church Mound, never excavated. No historic-period Native village in the township is recorded in the sources checked. The land lay within the roughly two-thirds of Ohio opened to settlement by the Treaty of Greenville (1795).

Nations recorded here: Adena culture.

• Zaleski Mound Group (Ranger Station, Markham and Methodist Church mounds) (mound) — village of Zaleski, northwest Madison Township, Adena culture, about 800 BC to AD 100 (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1818 — On Hocking County's organization the Madison and Knox area becomes Brown Township of Athens County.
2. early settlement — The first settler is a man remembered only as Wallace, followed by Abraham Bryson, William Fee and Abraham Johnson.
3. 1850 — Vinton County is organized and the township joins it as South Brown Township.
4. 1852-03-02 — On a petition of its residents the county commissioners rename South Brown Township Madison.
5. 1856 — The main line of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad reaches Zaleski, just founded, on its way to Athens.
6. 1858 — Zaleski Furnace, the only Vinton County furnace to use stone coal, is founded.
7. 1860 — Population is 782.
8. 1861 — The Methodist Episcopal church of Zaleski is organized by Rev. John Steward.
9. 1863 — Zaleski's Catholics, who have met in private houses since 1857, take steps to build a church, finished a few years later at a cost of about $6,000.
10. 1870 — Population is 1,623.
11. 1874-09-09 — Fire destroys all the Marietta and Cincinnati railroad shops at Zaleski except the foundry and roundhouse, a loss of about $75,000.
12. 1880 — Population is 2,217, the largest in the county, concentrated in Zaleski and the northeastern half of the township.
13. 1890 — Population is 1,640.
14. 1910 — Population is 973 including 476 in Zaleski.
15. 2020 — Census population is 532, of whom 230 live in Zaleski.

Stories

The rise and fall of Zaleski

Zaleski began as a mining-company town in the 1850s, when the Marietta and Cincinnati line ran through the Raccoon Valley and the Zaleski Furnace was built on a rise above the creek. By the early 1860s it was a railroad town with large shops that employed nearly two hundred and fifty men until September 9, 1874, when fire burned everything but the foundry and roundhouse, a loss of about $75,000. The shops were rebuilt on a much smaller scale, and the deep wells the proprietors sank looking for richer ore, one of them to 900 feet, found only a continuous flow of water. Madison Township held 2,217 people in 1880 and 973 in 1910.

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

Groundwater wells (3 wells) The water here

• Mcarthur, Village Of76% of residentsGroundwater wells (7 wells)
• Zaleski Village24% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Ross County Water Co. Inc0% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 3 of 3 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 2 of 2.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

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

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