Mowrystown

How Mowrystown began

Mowrystown grew up in southern Whiteoak Township as a pioneer settlement near where Captain Andrew Badgley had built a home soon after 1800, and was platted as a town on May 29, 1829, by Samuel Bell, who renamed it for Squire Abe Mowry, a locally esteemed resident. It grew slowly as a farm-trade village, reaching 414 residents in 1870 before losing most of that population by 1880. The village is the home of Whiteoak High School, and today remains a small crossroads community in far southern Highland County near the Brown County line.

Settled c. 1800, platted 1829-05-29, by Samuel Bell (platted); named for Squire Abe Mowry.

Where the name comes from

Mowrystown was renamed in honor of Squire Abe Mowry, a highly esteemed resident, when Samuel Bell platted the pioneer settlement as a town on May 29, 1829.

Before the town

No site-specific Native American history, such as named villages, trails or mounds, is recorded for Mowrystown or Whiteoak Township. The land lay within the roughly two-thirds of Ohio ceded by the Treaty of Greenville (1795), signed by the Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware), Miami, Ottawa and other nations, which opened southern Ohio including the future Highland County to American settlement.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Wyandot, Lenape (Delaware).

Timeline

1. c. 1800 — Captain Andrew Badgley settles near the future site of Mowrystown, soon after 1800, one of the area's first settlers.
2. 1829 — May 29: Samuel Bell plats the pioneer settlement as a town and renames it for Squire Abe Mowry.
3. 1832 — A post office opens at Mowrystown, three years after the plat; it closes in 1861 and reopens in 1862.
4. c. 1839 — A Presbyterian church is organized among the French settlers of White Oak at the house of Frederick Grandgirard; his son E. Grandgirard is pastor from 1846, and a church building is later erected at Mowrystown.
5. c. 1842 — A United Brethren church is organized at Mowrystown.
6. 1869 — The brothers James and Charles Euverard begin owning and operating the old water mill at Mowrystown; the mill is sold in 1882.
7. 1870 — Mowrystown's population reaches 414 in that year's federal census.
8. 1880 — The village's population falls to 120, a 71 percent drop from 1870.
9. 1902 — The White Oak Valley Bank is established at Mowrystown with J. F. Cross as president.
10. 1910 — The census counts 326 people in Mowrystown.
11. 1940 — Mowrystown's population reaches 427.
12. 1980 — Mowrystown reaches its census high of 475 residents.
13. 2020 — The census counts 385 people in Mowrystown.

Stories

French families on White Oak Creek

Whiteoak Township took in a group of French-speaking Protestant families, and the 1902 county history is full of them. George Euverard, a stonemason and wooden-shoe maker from Etobon in France, sailed with his family in 1832 on a thirty-eight-day crossing and landed in New York. They farmed near Lake Ontario, lived five years in Cincinnati, and came to Highland County, where they settled near Mowrystown and bought a small farm. Other French families followed, and a little before 1840 a Presbyterian church was organized among them at Frederick Grandgirard's house; his son, the Rev. E. Grandgirard, was pastor after 1846, and a church building was erected at Mowrystown. Two Euverard grandsons, James and Charles, bought the old water mill at Mowrystown in 1869 and sold it in 1882.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · findagrave.com · visithighlandcounty.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · postalhistory.com

13 active wells drawing from the buried-valley aquifer along the Ohio River near Ripley; specific well-field location not separately documented The water here

• Sardinia Village100% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (2)

Police stations (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 0 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 2026-08-06
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-01-02

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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