Ohio Township, Gallia County

How Ohio Township, Gallia County began

Ohio Township, organized in 1804 in the southeastern corner of Gallia County, takes its name from the Ohio River, which forms its eastern and southern borders opposite Mason and Cabell counties, West Virginia. George and John Waugh were its first settlers, arriving in 1800 at the mouth of Swan Creek. The township was the starting point of the Hannan Trace, one of Ohio's oldest roads: frontier scout Thomas Hannan, a companion of Daniel Boone who had fought at Point Pleasant and served in the Revolutionary War, marked the trace through the wilderness from the Kanawha River to Chillicothe in the summer of 1800, and ran a ferry at the Swan Creek crossing from 1802 until about 1832. The township sits downstream of four of the county's five other river townships and has no incorporated municipality of its own.

Settled 1800, incorporated 1804, by First settlers George and John Waugh.

Where the name comes from

The township is named for the Ohio River, which forms its eastern and southern borders.

Before the town

No source found records a Native village, mound, trail, or treaty event specific to Ohio Township. The township lies within Gallia County's broader Shawnee homeland of the pre-1795 Ohio River valley.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1786 — Thomas Hannan, a frontier scout and companion of Daniel Boone who had fought at the Battle of Point Pleasant and served in the Revolutionary War, brings his family to the head of Green Bottoms on the West Virginia side of the Ohio, nearly opposite the mouth of Swan Creek, and plants the area's first corn crop.
2. 1800 — George and John Waugh settle at the mouth of Swan Creek, the township's first settlers; the first child born is Ephraim, son of Timothy Hobbs.
3. 1800-summer — Thomas Hannan marks out the Hannan Trace through the wilderness from a block-house on the Kanawha River near the mouth of Coal River to Chillicothe, by way of Jackson, starting from the head of Green Bottoms opposite Swan Creek.
4. 1802 — Thomas Hannan establishes a ferry across the Ohio River at the mouth of Swan Creek, the first one located between Greenupsburgh, Kentucky and many miles above Point Pleasant; he runs it until about 1832, when he turns it over to his son Henry.
5. 1803 — Thomas Hannan erects a log grist mill on Swan Creek, containing one run of stones -- the township's first.
6. 1804 — Ohio Township is organized in the southeastern corner of Gallia County, taking its name from the Ohio River that forms its eastern and southern borders.
7. 1831 — The township's first church organization, Methodist Episcopal, is established with Rev. Webster, a circuit minister, officiating.
8. 2020 — Ohio Township records a census population of 947, with no incorporated municipality within its 23.6 square miles.

Stories

The trace Thomas Hannan blazed

Thomas Hannan was born about 1759 in Shenandoah County, West Virginia. As a young man he joined the forces under General Lewis and fought the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, then served as a volunteer in the Revolutionary War doing "row-galley" duty -- carrying dispatches and messages by water -- stationed mostly at Hampton Roads. After the war he returned to the Ohio River, lived for years in the fort at Point Pleasant, and became a celebrated scout, hunter and companion of Daniel Boone, hunting and trapping along Raccoon Creek with Robert Safford, James Burford, Andrew Friend and others. Boone was impressed enough by Hannan's young son that he took the boy along on scouting trips into Kentucky and southern Ohio. In the spring of 1786 Hannan brought his family to the head of Green Bottoms, opposite the mouth of Swan Creek, and planted corn -- for a time the only settler on that side of the river between Point Pleasant and present Greenup, Kentucky, protected chiefly by his own reputation as a marksman. As settlement pushed west after 1798, the need for an overland route grew, and in the summer of 1800 Hannan, using his intimate knowledge of the country, marked out what became known as the Hannan Trace: blazing trees with an ax from a block-house on the Kanawha River near the mouth of Coal River to Chillicothe, by way of Jackson, saving travelers the longer route down the Kanawha. He then ran a ferry at the Swan Creek crossing from 1802 until about 1832, when his son Henry took it over; the trace and ferry carried much of the traffic from eastern Virginia into the Ohio interior until a turnpike down the Kanawha to Point Pleasant redirected the route. By 1882, much of the trace had become an ordinary road, though on undisturbed ridges the axe-marks in the trees, then eighty-two years old, could still be seen.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com

No water-system data is linked to Ohio Township, Gallia County's ZIP codes yet.

Bridges rated poor (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

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 2026-03-17

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