Olive Township, Meigs County

How Olive Township, Meigs County began

Olive Township occupies Meigs County's northeastern corner, the farthest upstream of the county's Ohio River townships, set off from Athens County territory in 1819 as Meigs County itself was created. It has no incorporated village of its own; instead it holds three unincorporated river and inland communities -- Long Bottom in the south, Reedsville on the shoreline, and Tuppers Plains in the northwest -- each with its own small pioneer-era founding story built on timber, milling and small trade rather than a courthouse or a railroad. Long Bottom's earliest settlers, the Rairdon and Colman families, arrived probably before 1800. Today the township is rural and thinly populated, 1,651 residents in the 2020 census, and its water history in recent years has been dominated by the Tuppers Plains-Chester Water District's fight against Ohio River flooding and PFAS ('forever chemical') contamination.

Settled probably before 1800 (Long Bottom, by the Rairdon and Colman families), incorporated 1819 (set off from Athens County as Meigs County is formed).

Where the name comes from

No known source we consulted explains why the township is named Olive. Statewide, the only other Olive Township in Ohio is in Noble County; no known document connects either township's name to a specific person or place.

Before the town

No source we consulted documents a specific Native American village, camp, trail or burial site within Olive Township. The township's stretch of the Ohio River, across from Wood County and Jackson County, West Virginia, lay within territory the United States treated as ceded by the Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785) and Treaty of Fort Harmar (1789) -- agreements the Shawnee and Miami disputed -- confirmed to the Americans' satisfaction only by the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Nothing site-specific to Olive Township is recorded here, and the gap should be read plainly rather than filled with a guess.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Wyandot, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

Timeline

1. before 1800 — Thomas Rairdon and the Colman families become the earliest documented settlers at Long Bottom, in the southern part of what becomes Olive Township; the exact date is not known.
2. 1808 — William Buffington purchases land at Long Bottom, followed soon after by the Whiteside and Collins families.
3. 1815 — Thomas Rairdon builds Long Bottom's first grist mill; the same year, the settlement's first post office opens on the Warner farm with Robert Collins as postmaster.
4. 1819 — Olive Township is set off from Athens County territory as Meigs County is formed.
5. 1839 — John Roberts and William Hicks open Long Bottom's first store, near the mouth of Forked Run.
6. 1844 — A Methodist Church is established at Long Bottom, followed by a Christian Church congregation in 1847.
7. 1966 — The Tuppers Plains-Chester Water District is created December 31 as a nonprofit government entity under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 6119, formed to serve rural residents including those in Olive Township's Tuppers Plains community.
8. 2024 — The Ohio River crests above 41 feet on April 5, putting part of the district's Long Bottom wellfield underwater; a raw, untreated sample taken the next day tests positive for E. coli, and customers are placed under a boil advisory.
9. 2026 — Ohio EPA announces on April 7 that the Tuppers Plains-Chester Water District will receive $4 million from a $65 million DuPont PFAS settlement distribution to extend waterlines to homeowners with PFOA-contaminated private wells.

Stories

A mill, a post office, and casks by the riverful

Long Bottom's earliest years followed a pattern common to Ohio River bottomlands: settlers first, infrastructure later. The Rairdon and Colman families had put down roots probably before 1800, though the exact year was already lost to memory when the county's pioneer historians went looking for it decades later. William Buffington bought in around 1808, and by 1815 the little settlement had both a working grist mill, built by Thomas Rairdon himself, and its first post office, on the Warner farm with Robert Collins as postmaster. It took until 1839 for the place to get an actual store, when John Roberts and William Hicks opened one near where Forked Run empties into the Ohio. What really drove the local economy, though, was the forest itself: Long Bottom's leading business for much of its early history was turning its heavy timber into staves and casks, barrel-making for a river trade that needed containers by the thousand.

A wellfield underwater, twice over

The Tuppers Plains-Chester Water District, formed in 1966 to bring reliable water to the rural stretch of Meigs and Athens counties around Olive Township, draws from six wells, including a wellfield at Long Bottom -- low bottomland the Ohio River has flooded before. On April 5, 2024, the river crested above 41 feet and put part of that wellfield underwater; a raw sample pulled the next morning tested positive for E. coli, and the district had to warn its customers to boil their water. Two years later, in April 2026, the district's water made news for the opposite kind of contamination: Ohio EPA announced it would receive $4 million of a $65 million DuPont PFAS settlement to run new waterlines out to homeowners whose private wells carry PFOA, the 'forever chemical' that reached the region's groundwater from DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · meigs.ohgenweb.org · en.wikipedia.org · tpcwd.org · athensmessenger.com · wsaz.com · commons.wikimedia.org

Local groundwater wells in the Ohio River valley near Long Bottom The water here

• Tuppers Plains/chester Water District93% of residentsLocal groundwater wells near Long Bottom (Ohio River valley area)
• Little Hocking Water Association, Inc.4% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (own wells, Porterfield wellfield)
• Coolville Village3% of residentsLocal groundwater wells near Long Bottom (Ohio River valley area)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 2 of 3 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 0 of 1.

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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-08-27

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