Pebble Township, Pike County

How Pebble Township, Pike County began

Pebble Township, in the north of Pike County, was organized in August 1821 as the first new township formed after the county's original divisions. Hilly and well watered by Pee Pee Creek, it had 1,594 residents in 1880 and two hamlets, Buchanan at its center and Idaho in the southwest, where Pebble, Benton, Sunfish and Newton meet. The county infirmary moved to a farm near Idaho in 1867. By 1883 it had two Black congregations, the African Baptist and the African Methodist Episcopal, and two schools marked as colored; it had 2,428 residents in 2020.

Incorporated August 1821 (township organization; first election held that October).

Where the name comes from

Not established from the sources consulted; the township's Wikipedia article did not explain the name and no other source we consulted addressed it.

Before the town

No village, mound, trail or encounter is recorded for Pebble Township in the sources read. What the record supports is the land's status: Pike County lies south and east of the Greenville line, and the Treaty of Greenville (signed August 3, 1795) ceded roughly two-thirds of Ohio to the United States. The first settlers in this part of the county came within a few years after it, in 1796 and later. The township lies west of the Scioto River, in the part of Pike County that belonged to the Virginia Military District, which Virginia reserved in 1784 to pay its Revolutionary War veterans and which was surveyed by metes and bounds.

Timeline

1. c. 1816-1817 — The township's oldest school-house, a log building on Pee Pee Creek known as the Pee Pee School-house, is put up.
2. 1820 — The first Methodist class in the township is organized at the home of William Ward on Pee Pee Creek by Revs. James Laws and Hurd; it becomes Pee Pee Chapel.
3. August 1821 — Pebble Township is organized; its first election in October has Joseph Penisten, William Young and Daniel Devorss as judges, and the 1884 history calls it the first new township formed after the county was divided.
4. 1830 — The No-Name United Brethren Church is organized; it builds a log church in 1840 and a frame one in 1874, dedicated by Bishop Jonathan Weaver.
5. 1840 — The census counts 504 residents; the township has 914 in 1850.
6. about 1848 — The African Baptist Church is organized; its first church is built in 1857 under Rev. Nelson Satterwhite and a new one in 1877, and by 1883 it has 215 members.
7. 1853 — The African Methodist Episcopal Church is organized, meeting in the Barnett School-house in the township's northwest.
8. 1860 — The township has 1,438 residents, up from 914 in 1850.
9. December 8, 1866 — James Emmitt and his wife deed the county commissioners a farm of about 344 acres at or near Idaho for the county infirmary.
10. 1867 — The county infirmary is moved to Idaho from its first site on Pee Pee Creek, and the Idaho Christian Union Church is organized by Rev. Alfred Moore, building a church in 1870.
11. 1870 — The Leeth Christian Union Church is organized by Rev. John Treat with ten members; it builds in 1878.
12. 1873 — The Mt. Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church builds its church.
13. 1877 — The Buchanan Presbyterian Church is organized by Rev. Mr. Adams with about twenty members.
14. 1880 — The township has 1,594 residents.
15. 1881 — The Buchanan United Brethren Church is organized by Rev. George W. Morgan.
16. 1883 — Idaho, which touches Pebble, Benton, Sunfish and Newton townships within its surveyed limits, has a little over 100 people and Buchanan about 100; the township has ten school districts, two of them for Black children.
17. 2020 — The census counts 2,428 residents in the township.

Stories

The county poor farm at Idaho

For many years Pike County's poor were 'farmed out' to whoever would keep them, until the legislature passed a law letting counties buy poor-farms and put up buildings. The county started its first infirmary in 1854 on Pee Pee Creek, two miles from Waverly, with Peter Fry as the first superintendent, followed by Thomas McCallister. In 1867 it moved to a farm of some 344 acres at or near Idaho, in Pebble Township, bought from James Emmitt and his wife by a deed of December 8, 1866. The buildings were a two-story frame main house with eight rooms and an addition of ten smaller rooms, valued with the land at $7,000. Amos Watts, Uriah Peniston and B. J. Farmer served as superintendents before David Gordon, who held the post in 1883, and the three directors that year were Robert Leeper, Stephen Goodman and Enoch Steadman.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Waverly City53% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Ross County Water Co. Inc14% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Pike Water, Inc.-plant13% of residentsTeays Valley Buried Valley Aquifer (wells near Jasper)
• Piketon Village11% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Lake White8% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Bainbridge Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Dawsons Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Superfund sites (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 2 of 2 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, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-03-25

Cite this page