Paint Township, Fayette County

How Paint Township, Fayette County began

Paint Township lies on the northern border of Fayette County, between Jefferson Township and Madison and Marion townships, and was one of the county's six original townships in 1810. It takes its name from Paint Creek, which runs along its western edge, while the East Fork of Paint Creek passes Bloomingburg in its southeast corner. George Coil built the first cabin about 1802; the Hays, Salmon and Stewart families followed, and the county commissioners held their first meeting in Colonel James Stewart's cabin in 1810. Bloomingburg, laid out in 1815 as New Lexington, became a center of Presbyterian and anti-slavery activity and a stop on the Underground Railroad. The township, with Bloomingburg, had 2,079 people in 1910; the Mount Sterling Historic District and 'The Shack,' tied to this ZIP, lie in neighboring counties.

Settled c. 1802, incorporated 1810 (original township), by George Coil (first settler).

Where the name comes from

Named for Paint Creek, which flows through the township and enriches its soil.

Before the town

The county histories say the forests of Paint Township were still used by Indian people before and for some time after the county was organized in 1810. The 1872 pioneer record traces an Indian trail from below Washington to the East Fork of Paint Creek, up the creek to Kendel's Bluff on Sugar Creek and west to Old Town on the Little Miami; it says the trail was plainly visible in 1804 and used as late as 1811 and afterward by Indians allied with the United States in the War of 1812. The same record describes a symmetrical mound on James Willis' farm about 30 feet high and 800 rods around, and an Indian graveyard on Henry Windle's farm where gravel diggers exposed many skeletons (the Windle land may be in neighboring Jefferson Township). The 1881 history tells how, after a white man named Wolf killed an Indian at Chillicothe, settlers here fled to Chillicothe; Solomon Salmon stayed, hiding in the woods while a party searched around his cabin, and returned unharmed. Rev. William Dickey of the Bloomingburg Presbyterian church often visited Indian settlements as an evangelist, and one of its members, Martha Fullerton, later served as a missionary to the Iowa and Sac.

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

• Old Town trail (East Fork of Paint Creek route) (trail) — from below Washington up the East Fork of Paint Creek toward Kendel's Bluff on Sugar Creek, historic, used to about 1812 (archive.org)
• Mound on the James Willis farm (mound) — James Willis' farm, unknown (archive.org)

Timeline

1. c. 1802 — George Coil builds the first cabin in the township and begins clearing a corn patch.
2. 1805 — William Hays and his father James's family settle on Survey No. 1063 on the bank of Paint Creek; Solomon Salmon of Delaware settles the same year.
3. 1810 — The commissioners of the new Fayette County hold their first meeting in the spring in Colonel James Stewart's cabin, before any county seat is chosen.
4. 1810 — Paint is organized as one of the county's six original townships.
5. 1812 — John Tway's family settles on leased land near the Madison County line; his son Nathaniel had come in 1810.
6. 1815 — Bloomingburg, most of which lies in Paint Township's southeast corner, was laid out; local tradition holds it was named for the abundant flower gardens kept by residents.
7. 1815 — Solomon Bowers lays out New Lexington, generally called the 'New Purchase,' on the East Fork of Paint Creek; the deed is acknowledged November 30. It is later renamed Bloomingburg.
8. 1817 — The Bloomingburg Presbyterian Church is organized November 22 with twenty-six members; Rev. William Dickey serves it for forty years.
9. 1817 — Ruth Piatt comes by wagon from New York with the family of Judge Joseph Gillespie; the county history calls her the first Black woman ever seen in the county.
10. 1819 — A post office was established at Bloomingburg.
11. 1822 — The Regular Baptist Church of Christ on the East Fork of Paint is constituted at Joel Wood's house; it builds at Bloomingburg in 1846.
12. 1830 — The Bloomingburg Presbyterians replace their log meeting house with a brick church, which the 1881 history says was often assaulted by 'whisky and slave power mobs.'
13. 1834 — After a series of Presbyterian meetings on slavery, Bloomingburg residents organize an anti-slavery society; merchant James Claypole drafts its constitution.
14. 1847 — The legislature incorporates Bloomingburg on February 5; its first mayor, Joseph Counts Jr., is elected February 24.
15. 1853 — The township is divided into eight school districts, and the board votes on May 14 to build a schoolhouse in each.
16. 1855 — On April 16, on a petition from fifty-five young women, the board bans tobacco from every schoolhouse in the township.
17. 1881 — Carr's Mill, a hamlet that grew around William Carr's water-powered flour mill on Paint Creek near the county line, has about 100 people and a new Baptist church.
18. 1910 — Paint Township, including Bloomingburg, has 2,079 people.

Stories

Bloomingburg and the Underground Railroad

The 1881 county history says Bloomingburg was known for aiding fugitives from slavery 'long before the anti-slavery society was formed.' In 1834 its Presbyterians held a series of meetings on slavery. James Claypole, a merchant who opposed the movement, was persuaded by his clerk to attend one evening, took a back seat, and left convinced; the next day he drafted the constitution of the new anti-slavery society. Cabins, garrets, stables, haystacks and barns were opened to people escaping north, and the history says hundreds were fed, clothed and sent on toward Canada, with conductors calling at night and 'no questions asked.' After the Civil War many of those who had passed through came back to settle in the community.

Fifty-five petitioners against tobacco

In 1853 Paint Township's board of education divided the township into eight districts and voted to build a new schoolhouse in each, levying up to $4,000 and keeping school seven months a year. Two years later, on April 16, 1855, the board received a petition from fifty-five young women asking that tobacco be kept out of the schoolrooms. It ordered that the use of tobacco be excluded 'on all occasions' from every schoolhouse in the township. That year's count found 449 young people of school age in the township, 439 white and 10 Black.

Photographs

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

Groundwater wells (3 wells) The water here

• Village of Bloomingburg63% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Washington Court House24% of residentsPaint Creek (Washington C.H. Reservoirs) + wells
• Jeffersonville Village11% of residentsGroundwater wells (6 wells)
• South Solon Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Ross County Water Co. Inc0% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Fayette County - culpepper Subdivision0% of residentsPaint Creek (Washington C.H. Reservoirs) + wells

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 1 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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-09-04

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