Meigs Township, Adams County

How Meigs Township, Adams County began

Meigs Township, in eastern Adams County, was formed at the December 1806 session of the county commissioners and named for Return Jonathan Meigs, Governor of Ohio; its first elections were held at Peter Wickerham's tavern. Its early villages grew along the Limestone-to-Chillicothe road and Ohio Brush Creek: Jacksonville, laid out in 1815 and served by Dunbarton post office, and Newport, laid out in 1819 where the East and West forks of Brush Creek meet. In the southeast, the old Steam Furnace site became the Mineral Springs health resort, with a post office from 1872. The Cincinnati, Portsmouth and Virginia Railroad, built through the township in 1881, created the village of Peebles, named for John G. Peebles of Portsmouth, which by 1900 had about 1,000 people and had drawn trade away from Jacksonville.

Settled 1796, platted 1815, incorporated 1806, by Peter Shoemaker settled on Brush Creek in 1796; William Thomas laid out Jacksonville in 1815; the township was formed at the December 1806 session of the county commissioners.

Where the name comes from

Named for Return Jonathan Meigs (Jr.), Governor of Ohio; the 1900 county history calls him the second Governor of Ohio, and the 1880 atlas says the township was named in honor of Gov. Return J. Meigs.

Before the town

No mound, village or trail specific to Meigs Township is described in the 1880 atlas or the 1900 county history. The one Native-related story the 1900 history gives is disputed by its own author: a tradition that in the summer of 1796 Indians carried off a daughter of Peter Shoemaker from his home near the Sproull bridge over Ohio Brush Creek to their village on the Little Miami near present Xenia, where she grew up and married before being found and returned to Brush Creek. A darker version has Shoemaker shot in his doorway and his wife and infant killed. Evans and Stivers, after checking the records, concluded that any captivity of the Shoemaker children must have happened before the family came to the Northwest Territory, since Peter Shoemaker settled on Brush Creek in 1796 and died there in 1809, leaving a will.

Timeline

1. 1796 — Peter Shoemaker settled on Ohio Brush Creek near the later Sproull bridge; he died there in 1809.
2. 1806 — The county commissioners formed Meigs Township at their December session, ordering elections held at the tavern of Peter Wickerham.
3. 1815 — William Thomas laid out Jacksonville on the Limestone and Chillicothe turnpike at the top of Brush Creek hill, naming it for Andrew Jackson; the 1880 atlas gives the date as October 20 and counts 57 in-lots.
4. 1815 — A post office was established at Jacksonville about this time; because Ohio already had a Jacksonville office, it was named Dunbarton for James Dunbar, who had worked to obtain it.
5. 1819 — James Kirkpatrick laid out Newport at the junction of the East and West forks of Ohio Brush Creek on January 27, on a plat of 58 lots and a public square.
6. 1827 — In May the mail on the Maysville-to-Chillicothe stage line was robbed between West Union and Sinking Springs; suspicion fell on a Jacksonville resident who fled, and West Union postmaster William McColm offered a $50 reward.
7. 1864 — Beech Fork United Baptist Church was constituted at the house of Daniel Stephenson in the southeast of the township, with 33 members and Benjamin Porter as pastor.
8. 1869 — Brush Creek Baptist Church finished a $1,000 frame meeting house at the McCormick graveyard and was organized as a Regular Baptist church on July 31.
9. 1869 — A post office named Wilson, for Congressman John T. Wilson, was opened at Newport with William R. Rodgers as postmaster.
10. 1872 — Mineral Springs post office was established at the old Steam Furnace with B. Salisbury as postmaster, named for two springs whose waters drew visitors.
11. 1879 — Forty-five members of the Brush Creek Baptist church took letters on July 5 to organize Evergreen Regular Baptist Church, which built a frame house about a mile north of the Steam Furnace that year.
12. 1880 — The township's population was 2,124, up from 1,071 in 1840.
13. 1881 — The Cincinnati, Portsmouth and Virginia Railroad was completed through the township and the village of Peebles grew up on it, named at N.W. Evans's suggestion for John G. Peebles of Portsmouth, a subscriber to the line.
14. 1886 — Peebles was incorporated as a village.
15. 1900 — The Mineral Springs resort had a hotel with hot and cold baths, cottages, a chapel and an amusement hall, run by S.R. Grimes; its water was analyzed at 205.35 grains of solids per gallon.

Stories

Dave Bradford and Brush Creek hill

Before canals and railroads, stage coaches ran from Maysville to Chillicothe through Jacksonville, and the Fristoe hill down to the crossing of Ohio Brush Creek was the longest and steepest grade on the route. Driver David Bradford, later remembered in West Union for his conduct during the Asiatic cholera epidemic there, arrived at the Jacksonville post office one day after a heavy sleet had glazed the road with ice, and onlookers warned him against the descent. At the top of the grade he unhitched his team from the coach, hitched one favorite horse to the end of the tongue, mounted it, and drove the coach down the whole icy hill without a mishap. The county history quotes his verdict that it was a poor horse that could not outrun a stage coach.

The Mineral Springs resort

In the rough southeast of the township, near the old Steam Furnace, two springs flow from the base of a hill the 1900 history calls Peach Mountain or Grassy Hill. Their water was highly charged with gas and carried magnesia, lime, salt, iron and iodine, 205.35 grains of solids to the gallon. A post office named Mineral Springs opened there in 1872, and by 1900 the place was a resort four miles from Mineral Springs Station on the railroad, with a large hotel offering hot and cold baths, rustic cottages, a chapel and a hall for bowling, billiards and dancing, connected by telegraph and telephone. The hill shaded the grounds from four in the afternoon, which the history credits with keeping the nights cool in summer; the proprietor then was S.R. Grimes.

Local history sources: archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · geocoding.geo.census.gov · geocoding.geo.census.gov

Mostly private wells The water here

• Peebles Public Water System65% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Adams County Regional Wd29% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Seaman Village6% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)

High-hazard dams (1)

Public schools (1)

Stations and terminals (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-07-24

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