Mifflin Township, Pike County

How Mifflin Township, Pike County began

Mifflin Township, in Pike County's southwest, was formed on October 26, 1806 from Paxton Township of Ross County, the second-oldest township organization in the county after Pee Pee; Sunfish, Perry and Benton and part of Pebble were later cut from it, though it remains the second largest in area. Its north and central parts were settled about 1800, and the Perseverance Methodist church at Byington was organized in 1813. Byington held its first post office and Latham its second (1851); the township had 1,210 residents in 2020.

Settled c. 1800 (north and central parts), incorporated October 26, 1806 (formed from Paxton Township).

Where the name comes from

Not established from the sources consulted.

Before the town

No village, mound, trail or encounter is recorded for Mifflin Township in the sources read. What the record supports is the land's status: Pike County lies south and east of the Greenville line, and the Treaty of Greenville (signed August 3, 1795) ceded roughly two-thirds of Ohio to the United States. The first settlers in this part of the county came within a few years after it, in 1796 and later. The township lies west of the Scioto River, in the part of Pike County that belonged to the Virginia Military District, which Virginia reserved in 1784 to pay its Revolutionary War veterans and which was surveyed by metes and bounds.

Timeline

1. c. 1800 — The north and central part of the township is settled; early settlers named in the county history include John McCord, John Barton, Reuben Bristol, William Davis, John Kincaid, Peter O'Brian and Abraham Beekman.
2. 1801 — William Beekman settles on Grassy Fork of Sunfish, about a mile from Latham.
3. about 1804 — The township's first school is taught in a winter (the 1884 text, as scanned, reads 1801-05); the 1958 county history dates the county's first school to 1804 at Byington.
4. October 26, 1806 — Mifflin Township is formed from Paxton Township; its first officers include trustees William Pillars, Thomas Gardner and John Kincaid, and William Parker is clerk and treasurer.
5. 1810 — Josiah Pillers builds a cabin near Sunfish Creek, two miles from Latham, that was still standing sixty years later as a memorial of pioneer days.
6. 1813 — The Perseverance Methodist Episcopal Church is organized at Byington with thirty-five members; a log church is raised on New Year's Day 1815 on a lot given by the Holton heirs and dedicated that year.
7. 1816 — Josiah Pillers marries Mary Beekman on September 26, married by William Parker, Justice of the Peace.
8. 1820 — Mr. Marcus builds the first grist-mill on Sunfish Creek, opposite Byington; Thomas Holton buys it in 1823 and moves it across the creek.
9. 1842 — Benton Township is taken from part of Mifflin, which accounts for a drop in population over that decade.
10. 1848 — Enoch Reed establishes a tannery at Byington on Poplar Street.
11. 1851 — The Latham post office is established, with F. G. Parker as first postmaster; Byington's office, with Isaac Holton as first postmaster, was the first in the township.
12. 1866 — The Byington Christian Union Church is organized by Rev. Uriah Milburn with about eighty members and builds a $1,400 church the next year.
13. 1869 — The Holton heirs sell the mill to Daniel Murphy; it passes to George Dixon, who rebuilds it, and then to John Smith.
14. 1875 — The Latham Methodist Episcopal Church is organized by Rev. Arthur Humphreys with forty-two members; Rev. William A. Cartwright builds the church and gives it to the congregation in November.
15. 1877 — The Calvary Protestant Methodist Church, organized in 1875, builds its church.
16. 1880 — The township has 1,230 residents (645 in 1840, 546 in 1850, 821 in 1860, 1,108 in 1870).
17. 1881 — The Bethlehem Regular Baptist Church of Latham is organized with twenty members at Maple Grove School-house.
18. 1883 — Byington has about fifty residents and Latham about seventy-five; Peter Lytle, 105 years old, still lives at Latham, tending his own garden.
19. 2020 — The census counts 1,210 residents in the township.

Stories

The Holton mill on Sunfish Creek

The first grist-mill on Sunfish Creek was built in 1820 on the north side of the creek, opposite Byington, by a Mr. Marcus. In 1823 Thomas Holton bought it and moved it across to the other side, where it stood, rebuilt several times, ever after; he ran it until he died, and his heirs kept it going until 1869. Daniel Murphy bought it that year and sold it within twelve months to George Dixon, who took down the old mill and built a new one on the site; after two years Dixon sold it to John Smith, the owner in 1883. The Holton family was bound up with the settlement: the Holton heirs gave the lot on which Byington's Perseverance Methodists raised their log church on New Year's Day 1815, and Isaac Holton was Byington's first postmaster.

Josiah Pillers's cabin

Josiah Pillers settled on Sunfish Creek about two miles from Latham, and in 1810 built a cabin there. He married Mary Beekman on September 26, 1816, with William Parker, Justice of the Peace of Mifflin Township, officiating; her brothers Gabriel, Christopher, William, Aaron and Abraham, one of them a captain, all served in the War of 1812. The Beekmans were numerous in Pike County, since the brothers all settled and reared families. The Pillers farm was one of the finest in that section, with a noted spring giving nearly as much water as the county's Big Spring and a grove of sugar maples. The 1884 history says the cabin Pillers raised in 1810 was still standing sixty years later, no longer lived in but kept in memory of pioneer days.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Peebles Public Water System50% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Adams County Regional Wd22% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Hillsboro City12% of residentsClear Creek (via Selph Road & Liberty Park Reservoirs)
• Piketon Village7% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Pike Water, Inc.-plant4% of residentsTeays Valley Buried Valley Aquifer (wells near Jasper)
• Highland County Water Company, Inc.4% of residentsSand-and-gravel aquifer wells (Ross/Highland Co. well fields; local wells)
• Dawsons Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

High-hazard dams (2)

Public schools (3)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Superfund sites (1)

Cite this page