Perry Township, Pike County

How Perry Township, Pike County began

Perry Township, in Pike County's extreme northwest corner, was organized about 1825 (the date lost with the early records). Its Beech Flats and the valley of Baker's Fork of Ohio Brush Creek hold the best farmland, and its village, Cynthiana, was laid out between 1835 and 1840 by David Eubanks, who named it for his wife Anna and daughter Cynthia. An 1812 tannery there was, by the 1884 county history's account, probably the first in the county, and Cynthiana's United Brethren church, organized in 1820, is called one of the oldest in the county. In 1878 masked burglars robbed and roughed up the aged Eubanks sisters in their home, a crime the county history recorded in detail. The township had 915 residents in 2020.

Settled 1804 (George Eubanks and family); 1810 (John Corn or Core, near Cynthiana), incorporated about 1825 (township organization; exact date unknown, records lost).

Where the name comes from

Not established from the sources consulted for the township itself. Its village, Cynthiana, was laid out between 1835 and 1840 by David Eubanks, who named it in honor of his wife Anna and their daughter Cynthia; he died in Missouri on August 21, 1857, aged seventy-four.

Before the town

No village, mound, trail or encounter is recorded for Perry 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. 1804 — George Eubanks and his family arrive from Maryland by way of Kentucky; his daughters Rebecca and Rhoda, born in 1805 and 1808, were still living on the homestead in 1883.
2. 1810 — John Corn (the township's pioneer list gives the name as John Core) settles in Perry Township near what became Cynthiana.
3. 1812 — John Ferneau operates a tannery in Perry Township, which the 1884 history calls probably the first one in the county.
4. 1820 — The United Brethren Church is organized at Cynthiana with fifteen members and Rev. William Steward as first pastor; it builds a frame church in 1839 and a brick chapel on the same site in 1855.
5. about 1825 — Perry Township is organized, though the exact date is unknown because its early records were lost.
6. 1835-1840 — The village of Cynthiana is laid out by David Eubanks, who names it for his wife Anna and daughter Cynthia; he died in Missouri on August 21, 1857, at seventy-four.
7. 1841 — Cynthiana's Methodist Episcopal Church is organized by Rev. Henry Horton with about twenty-five members; a log church follows in 1843 and a brick one in 1853.
8. 1846 — Cynthiana's Presbyterian Church is organized on May 7; its church is erected in 1849.
9. 1850 — Cynthiana has 134 residents and the township 653 (565 in 1840).
10. 1864 — The Christian Union church is organized at Cynthiana by Rev. J. Givens with twenty-five members and builds in 1868.
11. October 31, 1878 — Masked burglars break into the home of Rebecca and Rhoda Eubanks and steal $900; two of them are caught and sentenced to ten and fifteen years in the penitentiary.
12. 1880 — The township has 879 residents (748 in 1870).
13. March 1882 — The brick Methodist Episcopal church at Cynthiana, in use for twenty-nine years, burns; the congregation meets in the Presbyterian church.
14. 1883 — Cynthiana has about 175 people, a postmaster at Rigdon's store, two doctors and a lawyer; the township has seven school districts, and the Christian Union congregation at Fairview Chapel builds its church.
15. 2020 — The census counts 915 residents in the township.

Stories

The Eubanks sisters' burglary

Rebecca and Rhoda Eubanks were born in 1805 and 1808 on the Perry Township homestead their family had settled the year before, after emigrating from Maryland by way of Kentucky. By 1878 the two unmarried sisters, then in their seventies, lived on quietly at the old homestead. On the night of Thursday, October 31, 1878, three masked burglars broke into their house, handled the elderly women roughly, and searched until they found $900 in cash. Two of the three were caught: a Highland County man named Robert McKimie, described in the county history as "a Highland County desperado notorious for his rascality," and Frank Mesmer, the son of a neighbor a few miles away. Mesmer was sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary and McKimie to fifteen; as of the book's writing in October 1883 both were still serving their terms. The sisters afterward kept two large dogs on guard.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Bainbridge Village32% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Ross County Water Co. Inc25% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Hillsboro City19% of residentsClear Creek (via Selph Road & Liberty Park Reservoirs)
• Peebles Public Water System13% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Highland County Water Company, Inc.6% of residentsSand-and-gravel aquifer wells (Ross/Highland Co. well fields; local wells)
• Adams County Regional Wd6% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

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