Paint Township, Madison County

How Paint Township, Madison County began

Paint Township, in the western tier of Madison County along Walnut Run and the forks of Paint Creek, was the last Madison County township but one to be organized, erected June 7, 1853 from parts of Stokes and Union townships even though settlement there went back to 1804. Andrew Sifrit, a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia, is remembered as its first settler, arriving with his family when the land was still administered as Darby Township, Franklin County. Peter Helphenstine, David Watson and James Withrow followed within a few years, clearing prairie and oak-opening land that would support large-scale stock raising. The township's one village, Newport, was platted in 1849 by Ephraim Freshour and grew around Paint Township's oldest church, a Methodist Episcopal congregation organized in 1807. Paint Township remains rural farmland today.

Settled 1804, incorporated 1853-06-07, by petitioned by residents of Stokes and Union townships; first settler Andrew Sifrit.

Where the name comes from

The township takes its name from Paint Creek, whose West and East Forks rise within its bounds and unite before flowing south into Stokes Township; the 1883 county history does not explain why the creek itself was called Paint, a name repeated across several Ohio watersheds and traditionally tied to Native use of the stream's clay or ochre banks, though no source found here confirms that origin for this particular Paint Creek.

Before the town

Paint Township was still occupied by Native hunters when its first white settlers arrived. The 1883 county history records that Andrew Sifrit's family in 1804 had "not more than half a dozen families as neighbors within a scope of fifteen miles" and lived amid "the fear of the savages, who were then in plentiful numbers all through the country." James Withrow, who settled on Walnut Run in 1807, had Native visitors at his cabin who were "generally friendly and peaceable" but would borrow tools, cooking utensils and cornmeal, sometimes searching the house for hidden stores; one tense encounter nearly ended with them threatening to scalp Withrow's wife before she drove them out. A Shawnee man remembered as Captain John Cushen (or "Captain John") had one of his favorite hunting camps on Walnut Run about fifty yards east of David Watson's cabin in this township, and around 1809 he blazed a trail from Watson's house to Owen Davis's grist-mill near present Clifton, twenty miles away, for a fee of $1.50. Another favorite Native camping spot, marked by visible rings of earth where wigwam poles had stood, was on a spring on the land of M. A. Baskerville in the southeast part of Paint Township. County-wide, Madison County lay on the direct route between Shawnee and Wyandot towns on the Scioto and those on the Mad River and the Miamis, making it prime hunting ground for Shawnee, Wyandot, Delaware and Mingo bands until the last are said to have left the area about 1820.

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

• Captain John's camping ground (camp) — on Walnut Run, about fifty yards east of David Watson's cabin, Paint Township, pre-1820 (archive.org)
• Baskerville spring camping ground (camp) — on the land of M. A. Baskerville, southeast part of Paint Township, pre-1820 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1804 — Andrew Sifrit, a Virginia-born Revolutionary War veteran, settled with his family on what became known as Sifrit Run, the first white settler within present Paint Township, then administered as Darby Township, Franklin County.
2. 1807 — Peter P. Helphenstine, a Revolutionary War major, moved his family into a cabin he had built the previous year, becoming (by local reckoning) the township's second settler; the same year the Methodist Episcopal class that later became the Newport church was organized at the house of Jonathan Minshall.
3. 1815 — James Withrow erected a water-powered saw mill on Walnut Run, the first mill in the vicinity and one of the first in the county.
4. 1816-1820 — A camp-meeting was held for two or three years running in the Minshall-Watson neighborhood, probably the first camp-meeting ever held in Madison County; at one evening service twenty-four people joined the church at once.
5. 1849 — Ephraim Freshour, who owned the land, laid off lots for the village of Newport and donated a lot for a school.
6. 1853-06-07 — The Madison County Commissioners erected Paint Township from parts of Stokes and Union townships, on petition of local residents; voters met at James Phifer's house on June 25, 1853 to elect the first township officers.
7. 1856 — A post office was established at Newport with James Gossard as postmaster.
8. 1872 — The Newport Methodist Episcopal congregation dedicated a new brick church, 56 by 32 feet, built at a cost of about $4,500.

Stories

A rich man's start in a Virginian's tent

About 1810, in the very center of Paint Township's prairie, a young Virginian settled and went into the stock business, fencing in a wide stretch of the free grazing land the prairie afforded. The 1883 county history does not give his name in this passage, but describes how his herds grew year after year until he owned thousands of acres and had become one of the wealthiest men in Madison County, an outcome the historian calls typical of the fortunes built on Paint Township's oak-opening prairies in that generation. The abundance of pasture, growing sedge grass six to eight feet tall, had drawn Ross County stockmen to graze cattle here even before settlers owned the land outright, and it was that same free grass that let early Paint Township residents turn small beginnings into large estates.

Guns left at the door

James Withrow settled on Walnut Run in 1807 with only three neighbors for company and Native families still passing through regularly. Withrow never let visitors bring guns into his house, insisting they be left outside, and one day while he was away at the mill in Chillicothe a group of Native visitors came to the cabin and pressed his wife to let them bring their weapons in. She refused and let them sit by the fire unarmed. As she spun thread she noticed them talking heatedly among themselves, and from their gestures she came to believe they were discussing scalping her; with, in the historian's words, "all the courage she could command," she ordered them out of the house and, through sheer firmness, got them to leave. The 1883 history offers the episode as typical of the trials pioneer women faced in that country, without recording the names of the visitors or what provoked the dispute.

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

Local glacial sand-and-gravel wells (Madison County) The water here

• Mid-ohio WSD - Chrisman Avenue WTP85% of residentsLocal glacial sand-and-gravel wells (Madison County)
• Choctaw Utilities, Inc.14% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Green Meadows Mobile Home Park1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (4)

Spills reported since 2021 (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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-09-02

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