Malta Township, Morgan County

How Malta Township, Morgan County began

Malta Township sits on the west bank of the Muskingum River across from McConnelsville and contains the village of Malta, laid out in 1816 by Simeon Pool and John Bell and named by Pool, a former sailor, for the Mediterranean island he had visited. The township itself, the last created in Morgan County, was set off in 1839, mostly from Morgan Township; the village was incorporated by special act of the legislature on March 7, 1842. Like McConnelsville, Malta grew on river trade once locks and dams were completed on the Muskingum between 1836 and 1841, and it became a manufacturing town: a foundry begun in 1844 became the Brown-Manly Plow Company, chartered in 1870 with $100,000 capital. A small 1830s stone jail known as the Morgan County Dungeon, rediscovered during construction in 1964, stands on Main Street. The township's 2020 population was 1,127, of whom 559 lived in the village.

Settled 1812 or earlier (Simeon Pool); Edward Miller on the township farm 1806; village laid out 1816, platted 1816 (the 1886 county history says laid out in 1816 but heads the section "Platted in 1817"; Wikipedia gives 1816), incorporated village incorporated by special act of the legislature, March 7, 1842; Malta Township set off in 1839, by Simeon Pool and John Bell, joint owners of the land; William B. Young, John Seaman, William Palmer and George Miller were the first residents.

Where the name comes from

Malta village was named by an early settler who had visited the Mediterranean island of Malta while working as a sailor.

Before the town

No Native American village or mound specific to Malta Township was found. The 1886 county history does record an 'Indian trail from the north to the Ohio River' that ran along the ridge a mile or more back from the Muskingum and was 'frequently used by the red men even after the country was settled by the whites.' Native people visited settlers with baskets and trinkets to trade for whisky and tobacco, and Edward Miller Sr. of the Sherwood farm, who had hunted with them as a boy and knew something of their language, was a frequent host. The history does not say which nation used the trail. The nearest documented site-specific event, the 1791 Big Bottom massacre, took place downriver in Windsor Township.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware).

• Ridge trail, north to the Ohio River (trail) — along the ridge a mile or more west of the Muskingum River, Malta Township, before and after settlement (to c. 1830s) (archive.org)

Timeline

1. before 1812 — Simeon Pool, a large, well-read, profane former seaman who served as a justice of the peace before Morgan County existed, settles on the land that includes part of the future town after trading a Marietta brick tavern for it.
2. 1815 — George Miller opens the first tavern, a hewed-log house on the site of the later Coulson store, after moving from Salt Run where he had made salt.
3. 1816 — Simeon Pool and John Bell lay out the village of Malta on the west bank of the Muskingum opposite McConnelsville, 114 lots between Pool and Young streets; Pool names it for the island he had visited as a sailor (the 1886 history's section heading says 1817).
4. 1817 — William B. Young, later an associate judge, builds a hewed-log house that still stood in 1886, starts the first ferry across the river to McConnelsville, and about 1818 puts up a sawmill on Clemens' Run.
5. 1818 — Hyman Lazarus opens the first store; William Palmer arrives and later begins cabinet-making; six families live in the village.
6. 1820 — Walbridge teaches the first school in a small log house; most children attend in McConnelsville until a frame schoolhouse is built about 1838.
7. 1833 — Malta Methodist Episcopal Church is organized by Rev. James T. Donahoo with ten members; its first church, of brick costing $1,500, is built in 1846.
8. 1836-1841 — Locks and dams are built on the Muskingum River, giving Malta a steady river trade alongside McConnelsville.
9. 1839 — Malta Township, the last township formed in Morgan County, is set off, chiefly from Morgan Township with a few sections of Deerfield.
10. 1842-03-07 — Malta is incorporated as a village by special act of the legislature; John Timms is the first mayor and Hiel Dunsmoor the first recorder.
11. 1844 — Hiel Dunsmoor and David Dickerson start the Malta Foundry, the county's second, the plant that becomes the Brown-Manly Plow Works in 1864.
12. 1851 — A steam engine from the Dunsmoor & Dickerson foundry, the first built in Morgan County, is installed in the Palmer furniture factory.
13. c. 1859 — W. P. and John Brown, who began making iron-beam double-shovel plows at Unionville in 1857, move to Malta (the printed date reads 1359); James and Frank Manly join them in 1864 and the Brown-Manly Plow Company is incorporated in 1870 with $100,000 capital.
14. 1872 — The Malta National Bank, the village's first and only bank, is chartered and opens on November 19 with E. M. Stanbery as president.
15. 1880 — Malta village has 652 inhabitants; a two-story brick town hall (1879) and brick schoolhouse (1858) stand on the East and West Squares.
16. 1883 — A new Methodist church, 60 by 60 feet and costing $7,000, is built, 'the most elaborate and commodious church structure in the county'; 'Upper Malta,' thirty-eight lots, is added the same year.
17. 1964 — A small stone jail from the 1830s, the Morgan County Dungeon, is rediscovered during construction work and later preserved on Main Street.
18. 1970 — Malta village reaches its census peak of 1,017 residents; it has 559 in 2020.

Stories

The dungeon under Main Street

In the 1830s Malta, a young river town, built a small stone jail, about eleven feet long, five wide and twelve high, that came to be called the Morgan County Dungeon. Construction work in 1964 turned the little cell up again, and it was moved and preserved on Main Street under an Ohio Historical Marker. Malta's early records are a reminder of how informal law was: the 1886 history also tells of an early prisoner who escaped by boring through the log walls of the primitive jail.

A mill on two flatboats

The first mill at Malta, built by Isaac Baker, was a 'floating mill' set on two flatboats, the kind that ground grain with the river's own current. Baker had come from Washington County and rented Judge Young's ferry. The 1886 history tells that the first time Hyman Lazarus, the village's first storekeeper, saw a steamboat on the river, he ran to Baker, eyes wide, to announce that Baker's mill had broken loose and was coming up the river grinding as it came. About 1830 Abraham Lippett built a brush dam across the river near the later Malta Mill and ran a mill there a few years, and in the 1830s the Muskingum locks and dams turned the village into a steady river port.

The plow that sold in two thirds of the states

In 1857 William P. and John Brown began making a one-horse, double-shovel plow with an iron beam in an ordinary blacksmith shop at Unionville, hauling a few hundred a year by wagon around the country. Iron beams were a novelty beside the clumsy wooden ones, and the Browns moved to Malta in 1859 to enlarge the business. In 1864 James and Frank B. Manly, builders of threshing machines, joined them, and the firm bought a foundry and a patent on the double-shovel plow. Incorporated in 1870 as the Brown-Manly Plow Company with $100,000 capital and a two-horse wheel cultivator added to the line, it grew into shops with 25,000 square feet of floor, twin 60-horse engines and room for 150 to 200 workers, all without a railroad: the 1886 historian marveled that its goods reached two thirds of the states by river alone.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Malta Village72% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Mcconnelsville Village17% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Morgan Meigsville - West Malta5% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Portersville East Branch Water Co.3% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Morgan Meigsville - Sr 3762% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Morgan Meigsville Rural0% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2024: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-05-12
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-06-05

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