Peebles

• Fort Ancient and Serpent MoundOhio's Fort Ancient farmers built maize villages from about AD 1000-1650. Nearby, Serpent Mound's true age is still disputed: about 300 BC or AD 1070.
• Ohio's deep timeOhio was once a tropical sea south of the Equator, home to giant trilobites and a toothless armored fish — and it has no dinosaur fossils at all.
• The Mound Builder MythOhio's earthworks were long blamed on a vanished 'lost race,' a myth that helped justify Indian Removal and outlived its 1894 federal debunking.

• Great Serpent MoundInvention or first · c. 300 BCE or c. 1070 CE

How Peebles began

Peebles sprang up in 1881 in Meigs Township when the Cincinnati & Eastern (later Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia) Railroad was completed through it, and was named at the suggestion of N. W. Evans for John G. Peebles of Portsmouth, who subscribed generously toward building the line from Winchester to Portsmouth. It was incorporated as a village in 1886 and grew from 358 residents in 1890 to 763 in 1900 and 921 in 1910, drawing trade from the older village of Jacksonville (Dunbarton). Wickerham Inn on Zane's Trace, the oldest brick building in the county, stands northeast of the village. Peebles peaked at 1,790 residents in 1980 and had 1,774 in 2020.

Platted 1881, incorporated 1886, by Railroad construction of the Cincinnati & Eastern.

Where the name comes from

Evans and Stivers's 1900 county history says Peebles was named at the suggestion of N. W. Evans for John G. Peebles of Portsmouth, who subscribed liberally toward the completion of the railroad from Winchester to Portsmouth.

Before the town

No native-specific sites or events tied to the village of Peebles itself were found in the sources consulted, though Serpent Mound lies a few miles to the north in Bratton Township.

Timeline

1. 1815 — William Thomas lays out Jacksonville, later called Dunbarton, at the top of Brush Creek hill on the Limestone and Chillicothe turnpike; its decline began with the rise of nearby Peebles after 1881.
2. 1819 — James Kirkpatrick lays out Newport at the junction of the West and East forks of Ohio Brush Creek, near the Marble Furnace; its post office was renamed Wilson in 1869 for Congressman John T. Wilson.
3. 1881 — Peebles was founded as the Cincinnati & Eastern Railroad was extended to the site.
4. 1886 — Peebles was incorporated as a village.
5. 1890 — The village recorded 358 residents, its earliest listed census figure.
6. 1900 — Evans and Stivers describe Peebles as one of the thriving, bustling villages of the county with about 1,000 people and the township's largest school, four departments with 229 pupils; the Peebles Bank is in business, and the old Steam Furnace stands nearby.
7. 1910 — Population reached 921, more than doubling in twenty years.
8. 1930 — The census counts 1,235 residents, 1,356 in 1940 and 1,601 in 1960.
9. 1957 — A Cairn of Peace is placed at the corner of Main and Elm streets.
10. 1980 — Population peaked at approximately 1,790.

Stories

The village the railroad named

Peebles has no pioneer story; it was born when the railroad came. The Cincinnati & Eastern had reached Winchester in 1877 as a narrow-gauge line, and was extended toward Portsmouth. Evans and Stivers says John G. Peebles of Portsmouth subscribed liberally toward completing the road from Winchester to Portsmouth, and when the line was finished through Meigs Township in 1881 a new town grew up on it that, at the suggestion of N. W. Evans, took his name. The older places nearby lost their trade: Jacksonville, laid out in 1815 at the top of Brush Creek hill on the Limestone road and later called Dunbarton, began to decline from its proximity to the new town. Peebles was incorporated in 1886 and, by the county historian's count, had about a thousand people by 1900, though the census put it at 763. The tavern that Peter Wickerham kept on Zane's Trace northeast of the village, the oldest brick building in the county, is the only landmark from before the railroad.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Peebles Public Water System69% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Adams County Regional Wd31% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (1)

Public libraries (1)

Police stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 3 of 3 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-03

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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