Pee Pee Township, Pike County

How Pee Pee Township, Pike County began

Pee Pee Township, which holds Waverly, the county seat, was organized in 1798 as a division of Ross County, before Pike County existed, and is the county's oldest township and, by the 1884 county history, its wealthiest; the Chenoweth brothers and John Noland settled its Pee Pee prairie bottoms in 1796. It takes its name from Pee Pee Creek, which the 1884 county history says was named when Peter Patrick, a pioneer of 1785, cut his initials P. P. on a beech tree beside it. Around 1820, according to Wikipedia (we found no other source for it), a settlement of free Black families grew up here and took part in the Underground Railroad. Lake White State Park lies in the township, which had 7,392 residents in 2020, 4,165 of them in Waverly.

Settled 1796 (Chenoweth brothers and John Noland), incorporated 1798, as a Ross County township; retained under Pike County in 1815, by organized as Pike County's first township in 1798.

Where the name comes from

The 1884 History of the Lower Scioto Valley (Scioto County chapter, quoting an article in the American Pioneer contributed by George Corwin of Portsmouth) says that Peter Patrick, one of four men who in April 1785 ascended the Scioto from the Ohio, cut the initials of his name on a beech tree beside a small stream; the letters, when found afterward, gave 'Pee Pee' to the creek, to the prairie and then to the township. The Pike County chapter of the same book says the prairie was already called Pee Pee when the Chenoweths came in 1796. A 1958 county history repeats the Patrick account. Wikipedia instead credits a Major Paul Paine or an unnamed settler who marked a tree with 'P.P.'; the older 1884 account is the source given first here.

Before the town

The Pee Pee prairie was a place of contact before settlement. The 1884 county history says the Scioto, leading to the Indians' chief village some twenty miles away, had long been traversed by Native and hunters' canoes, and tells, from an American Pioneer article, of a party of four men from the first (1785) settlement at the mouth of the Scioto who went up the river, one of whom, Peter Patrick, marked a beech tree with his initials; camping near the site of Piketon they were surprised by Indians and two were killed while two escaped to the Ohio. The 1958 county history adds that the Chenoweth and Noland families settled the prairie only after the Indians were 'subdued.' The Treaty of Greenville (August 3, 1795) ceded the southern and eastern two-thirds of Ohio the year before the Chenoweths came.

Timeline

1. April 1785 — A party of four from the Redstone settlement in Pennsylvania ascends the Scioto from its mouth; one of them, Peter Patrick, cuts his initials on a beech tree on the bank of a little stream, and while camped near the site of Piketon two of the four are killed when Indians surprise them (account printed in the American Pioneer).
2. 1796 — Arthur, John and Abraham Chenoweth, from western Virginia, and John Noland, of Pennsylvania, settle the Pee Pee prairie bottoms, the first permanent settlement in what became Pike County.
3. 1797 — John Chenowith, son of Abraham, is born, the first child born in what became Pike County; Snowden Sargent and James Sappington arrive that April.
4. 1798 — Pee Pee Township is organized by Ross County with Paxton, the two original townships west of the Scioto.
5. 1801 — John Barnes buys land in the township, part of it within the present limits of Waverly.
6. 1814 — The year before Pike County is organized, Ross County forms Beaver and Jackson townships from Pee Pee's territory, according to the Pee Pee chapter.
7. 1815 — When Pike County is organized, Pee Pee is kept as a township; its original townships are Pee Pee, Jackson, Beaver, Sunfish, Mifflin, Seal and Washington.
8. c. 1820 — Pee Pee Settlement, a community of free African Americans, many formerly enslaved in Virginia, is established; its residents farm and take part in the Underground Railroad despite violent attacks (Wikipedia's account; we found no other source for it).
9. March 1834 — The first township record shows trustees John Row, C. G. Crummit and Mesheck Downing.
10. 1839 — The school tax for the township is $342.38, divided among three of its four districts; most goes to the Waverly district.
11. 1844 — Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal Church is organized on Long Branch by Revs. Samuel Bateman and H. Westervelt, with services first at the house of John Lowry; its brick school-house, built in 1874, is financed by the society hauling the brick and sand.
12. 1845 — The German Evangelical Lutheran Church at Prussia, on the Ross County road three and a half miles north of Waverly, is organized by about twenty families; it builds a brick church in 1858.
13. 1854 — The county's first infirmary opens on Pee Pee Creek, two miles from Waverly, with Peter Fry as superintendent; it moves to Idaho in 1867.
14. 1880 — The township excluding Waverly has 1,186 residents (507 in 1840, 643 in 1850, 845 in 1860, 1,118 in 1870); Waverly, with 1,539, is larger than the township around it.
15. 1882 — The township, with Waverly and its school district, is assessed at $1,291,715, the highest in the county; the Scioto Valley Railroad and the Ohio Southern both cross it.
16. 2020 — The census counts 7,392 residents, 4,165 of them in Waverly and 3,227 elsewhere in the township.

Stories

Pee Pee Settlement

Around 1820, according to Wikipedia (we found no other source for it), a community of free African Americans, many of them formerly enslaved people who had come from Virginia, settled in Pee Pee Township. They farmed the land, built a community despite facing violent attacks from hostile neighbors, and took an active part in the Underground Railroad, helping move escaped enslaved people north through the Scioto Valley. The settlement stands as one of Pike County's clearest links to the broader network of free Black communities and Underground Railroad activity that ran through southern Ohio before the Civil War.

Peter Patrick's initials

In April 1785 four families from the Redstone settlement in Pennsylvania floated down the Ohio, moored under the bank below the present Portsmouth, and began clearing ground, hoping the Indians would let them stay. The four men then walked up the Scioto to see the country they had heard of from white captives. One of them, Peter Patrick, was so pleased that he cut the initials of his name on a beech tree beside a small stream. Camping near the site of Piketon, the party was surprised by Indians who killed two of the men by the fire; the other two escaped over the hills to the Ohio at the mouth of the Little Scioto, where a passing pirogue took them aboard and carried their families to Limestone. The 1884 county historian, who quotes the account from the American Pioneer, complained that it never said whether Patrick lived, and proposed that the survivors were Patrick and Thomas McDonald. When the letters on the beech were found afterward, the stream was named Pee Pee, then the prairie and the township.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Waverly City63% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Ross County Water Co. Inc15% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Aqua Ohio - Lake White10% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Pike Water, Inc.-plant10% of residentsTeays Valley Buried Valley Aquifer (wells near Jasper)
• Piketon Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Dawsons Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Hospitals (1)

Community health centers (2)

High-hazard dams (2)

Bridges rated poor (3)

Police stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Money issues on the ballot since 2015: 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, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-03-05
• Financial Audit, 2021 to 2022, released 2025-02-13

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