Paxton Township, Ross County

How Paxton Township, Ross County began

Paxton Township, in the southwestern corner of Ross County, was organized in 1800 as one of the county's six original townships and later gave up territory to form Twin, Buckskin and Paint townships. Paint Creek runs through its center, and the village of Bainbridge sits at its heart. The township is one of the richest archaeological landscapes in Ohio: the Seip Earthworks, a major Hopewell ceremonial complex, and the T.C. Campbell Mound both stand within its boundaries.

Settled 1795, by William Kent, clearing 40 acres for Nathan Reeves.

Where the name comes from

It is not recorded who or what Paxton Township is named for; it is the only Paxton Township in Ohio.

Before the town

Paxton Township holds two documented Hopewell culture (about 100 BC to AD 500) earthwork sites. The Seip Earthworks, about three miles east of Bainbridge on U.S. Route 50, once enclosed roughly 121 acres in linked circles and a square with embankment walls up to ten feet high; Seip Mound itself, the second-largest Hopewell mound ever built, measured 240 feet long, 130 feet wide and 30 feet high before excavation. Ohio Historical Society crews explored the smaller conjoined mounds from 1906 to 1909 and excavated the great mound between 1925 and 1928, finding 122 burials along with thousands of freshwater pearls, Isle Royale copper, Carolina mica and Tennessee River Valley effigy pipes evidencing a trade network spanning half the continent. A mile southwest of Bainbridge, the T.C. Campbell Mound (also called the Rockhold Mound), the last surviving piece of the Trefoil Works, was listed on the National Register in 1974. Historic-era Shawnee presence in the wider Paint Creek valley is well documented for the county as a whole; no named eighteenth-century Shawnee town specific to Paxton Township is recorded.

Nations recorded here: Hopewell culture, Shawnee.

• Seip Earthworks (Seip Mound) (earthwork) — about 3 miles east of Bainbridge, Paxton Township, on U.S. Route 50, Hopewell culture, c. 100 BC - AD 500 (ohiohistory.org)
• T.C. Campbell Mound (Rockhold Mound) (mound) — about 1 mile southwest of Bainbridge, Paxton Township, Hopewell culture (en.wikipedia.org)
• Reeves' Crossing fight (battle) — Paint Creek at Reeves' Crossing near the falls, Paxton Township, near Bainbridge, 1795 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1795 — William Kent, working for Nathan Reeves, clears 40 acres in what becomes Paxton Township - the first permanent improvement recorded in the township.
2. 1795 — While Wayne is treating with the Indians at Greenville, a party from Manchester on the Ohio, including Nathaniel Massie, surprises an Indian camp on Paint Creek at Reeves' Crossing; the Indians flee across the creek leaving their plunder, a Mr. Robinson of the whites is killed, and a prisoner escapes, but the party is attacked again the next morning on Scioto Brush Creek on the way home.
3. 1797 — Joseph Rockhold emigrates from Pennsylvania and settles first at the High Bank Prairie; he moves to Paxton Township in 1800, serves as captain in the War of 1812 and as justice of the peace for twenty-seven years.
4. 1800 — Paxton Township is organized as one of Ross County's six original townships, at that time covering all county land west of the Scioto River.
5. 1800 — Joseph Ogle comes to Ohio from Kentucky about this year, and Martin Gilmore, who fought at Reeves' Crossing, later moves from Amsterdam to Bainbridge and raises one of the first cabins there, carrying on a tailor's trade.
6. early 1800s — Christian Benner builds the first iron works at the Little Falls of Paint Creek and Jacob Smith the first mill at the Big Falls; John Torbett keeps the first hotel, Enos Folk the first store, and Elijah Kelly, a blacksmith and justice of the peace, is the first postmaster at Bainbridge.
7. 1808 — Abraham Pepple settles in the township; C. Platter and Robert Dill and his son Thomas, who build one of the first cabins, had come in 1800.
8. 1871 — Bainbridge has about 900 inhabitants, eleven stores and groceries, a drug store, two tanneries, four doctors, a union school and a colored school, a Presbyterian church and three Methodist churches including one for Black congregants, and a national bank; Lee S. Estel is mayor and the township justices are J. M. Pearce and Charles Robbins.
9. 1906 — The Ohio Historical Society begins exploring the Seip earthworks group, work that continues through 1909.
10. 1925 — Excavation of the great Seip Mound begins; by its close in 1928 crews had uncovered 122 burials and thousands of trade artifacts.
11. 2020 — The census counts 1,918 people in Paxton Township.
12. 2023 — Seip Earthworks is inscribed, as one of eight Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks sites, on the UNESCO World Heritage List on September 19.

Stories

What came out of Seip Mound

When Ohio Historical Society crews finished excavating the great mound at Seip between 1925 and 1928, they had opened 122 burials and recovered thousands of freshwater pearls, sheets of copper that had traveled from Michigan's Isle Royale, sheets of mica from the Carolinas, and effigy pipes carved from Tennessee River Valley pipestone. None of those materials occur naturally in Ross County. The mound, at 240 feet long and 30 feet high the second-largest the Hopewell ever built, sits on what by 1928 was ordinary Paxton Township farmland, three miles east of Bainbridge.

The fight at Reeves' Crossing, 1795

In 1795, while General Wayne was in treaty with the Indians, a company came out from Manchester on the Ohio to explore the Scioto valley. General Massie was in the band. Coming upon fresh Indian signs near the falls of Paint Creek, and hearing horse bells, they held a council and decided it was too late to retreat and that they should take the enemy by surprise. The Indians were camped on Paint Creek precisely at what was afterward called Reeves' Crossing, and of forty men in the white company about twenty actually fought. The Indians fled across the creek and left everything but their guns; Mr. Robinson of the whites was shot through the body and died at once, and one male prisoner the Indians had with them escaped to the whites. Martin Gilmore, separated in the fight, was chased by two Indians to where Reeves' mill later stood, crossed the creek, turned and killed one of his pursuers. That night, on the waters of Scioto Brush Creek, the whites were attacked an hour before dawn, several horses were killed and a Mr. Gilfillan was shot through the thigh, before the Indians withdrew after an hour. Finley took the story from McDonald's Sketches.

Local history sources: heritagepursuit.com · en.wikipedia.org · ohiohistory.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · ross.ohgenweb.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Bainbridge Village56% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Ross County Water Co. Inc44% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)

Public schools (3)

Private schools (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 2 of 2 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

Ballot issues

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-19

Cite this page