Monroe Township, Perry County

How Monroe Township, Perry County began

Monroe Township occupies the southeastern corner of Perry County, organized in 1823 and named for President James Monroe; before that it was attached to Bearfield Township. Brothers-in-law John McDonald and James Dew, from Maryland, blazed a way from Zanesville and made the first settlement in 1814. It is drained by the east and west branches of Sunday Creek and sits in the 'Great Vein' territory of the Hocking Valley coal field, where the seam reaches thirteen feet; a farm township of tobacco, sheep and cattle for its first sixty years, it was transformed when the Ohio Central railroad reached Rendville and Corning in 1879 and 1880 and Monroe became the county's leading coal exporter. It contains the villages of Corning and Rendville, Ohio's smallest incorporated village, and the older hamlets of Millertown (1834) and Chapel Hill (1849). The 1902 county history records an earth mound and a stone mound in the township and the Shawnee Run Trail following Indian Creek toward the Shawnee village.

Settled 1814, incorporated 1823 (township organized), by John McDonald and James Dew (first settlers).

Where the name comes from

Named for President James Monroe; one of twenty-two Monroe Townships in Ohio.

Before the town

The 1902 county history records the Shawnee Run Trail entering the county south of Corning, crossing Sunday Creek and running up through Monroe Township along Indian Creek, by way of Buckingham and Hemlock, to a Shawnee village at the site of Shawnee (the trail's name itself preserving the Shawnee association). The township also held an earth mound and a stone mound, unlocated in the sources checked. The 1883 county history says Monroe was a great hunting ground for Native people before settlement and that Indians camped and spent the winter on Sunday Creek as late as 1815, if not later, a year after the first white settlement. The same history repeats a tradition that Lord Dunmore's 1774 expedition against the Scioto towns camped one night on Sunday Creek, while judging the camp was probably south of the Perry County line.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Shawnee Run Trail (trail) — Monroe Township, Perry County, following Indian Creek by way of Buckingham and Hemlock, historic (pre-1800s) (archive.org)
• Monroe Township earth mound and stone mound (mound) — Monroe Township, Perry County (unspecified location), pre-contact (unspecified) (archive.org)
• Sunday Creek winter camps (camp) — along Sunday Creek, Monroe Township (no exact site given), historic, to about 1815 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1814 — John McDonald and James Dew, brothers-in-law from Maryland, blaze a path from Zanesville and build the township's first cabin; Dew settles on the east branch of Sunday Creek near the Athens County line.
2. 1816 — An unusually long, cold winter kills nearly all the ownerless wild hogs of Sunday Creek, which are found dead in heaps when it breaks.
3. 1820 — John McDonald builds a log Bible Christian (New Light) church on his farm, largely at his own expense, and preaches there himself.
4. 1823 — Monroe Township organized and named for President James Monroe.
5. 1830 — Methodists build the large frame Asbury church a mile from the later Millertown; it is used fifteen or twenty years and then abandoned.
6. 1834 — Jacob Miller lays out Millertown on high ground between the east and west branches of Sunday Creek.
7. 1849 — George Thompson and Bryan Murtaugh lay out Thompsonville, usually called Chapel Hill; its Catholic church follows about 1850.
8. 1861-1865 — During the Civil War, Confederate cavalry leader John Morgan camps at Millertown.
9. 1873 — Geologist E. B. Andrews reports borings on the Middle Fork of Sunday Creek finding the great coal seam 9 feet 6 inches thick on the Abram Post farm and 10 feet 10 inches on the William Fisher place.
10. 1878 — Joseph Rodgers lays out Corning.
11. 1879 — Thomas J. Smith and William P. Rend found Rendville as the Ohio Central railroad reaches the upper Sunday Creek coal field.
12. 1880 — Striking miners gather at Corning and march on Rendville; National Guard companies called out by Governor Foster camp in both towns, and a skirmish is fought in the woods near the Rendville camp.
13. 1881 — Borbec and Buckingham become working mining towns on the West Branch of Sunday Creek; Rendville's Black residents build Baptist and Methodist churches the same year.
14. 1887 — Dr. I. S. Tuppins, born enslaved and a graduate of Columbus Medical College, is elected mayor of Rendville, said to be the first Black mayor elected in Ohio.

Stories

A bushel of cornmeal, a skillet and a board

John McDonald and his brother-in-law James Dew came from Maryland on horseback in 1814 and blazed their own way from Zanesville into the Sunday Creek hills, where they built a small log cabin. As soon as it stood, McDonald followed his blazes back to Zanesville and bought a bushel of cornmeal, a skillet and a board to make a table; when he got them home, the family considered themselves comfortably fixed. The 1883 county history says he became the richest man in the township, if not the county. The cabin still stood in 1883 beside the later McDonald house, altered into a smokehouse. McDonald also built a log church on his farm about 1820, mostly at his own cost, and preached in it for the Bible Christians for the rest of his life.

The Corning War

Coal had been dug in Monroe since about 1832, but only for neighbors and a few Morgan County farmers who hauled it home in the fall. When the Ohio Central reached Rendville and Corning in 1879 and 1880, shafts were sunk and whole towns of company houses went up in months; Rendville counted 349 people in 1880 and an estimated 2,500 three years later. In the labor troubles of 1880, both towns filled for days with discontented miners from Shawnee, New Straitsville and the Hocking Valley. Governor Foster sent National Guard companies, one posted at Corning and the headquarters camp at the north end of Rendville. The miners gathered at Corning, marched up the narrow valley to Rendville, and skirmished with the troops in the woods near the camp, an episode the 1883 history calls the 'Corning War.'

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Corning, Village Of34% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Glouster Public Water System22% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Southern Perry Co-hemlock15% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Southern Perry Co-buckingham11% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Southern Perry Co-congo7% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Portersville East Branch Water Co.5% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Sunday Creek Valley Water4% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Oakdale Water District2% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Trimble Village0% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Southern Perry Co-irish Ridge0% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)

High-hazard dams (1)

Public schools (2)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Superfund sites (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-09-16

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