Perrysville

• Charles Mill LakeBuilt 1936 · 1,350 acres
• Pleasant Hill LakeBuilt 1937 · 850 acres

How Perrysville began

Perrysville was first settled about 1810 on the Black Fork of the Mohican River, in the same river valley where the Lenape (Delaware) village of Greentown had stood since 1783. The village was formally laid out in 1815 as Freeport and renamed to honor Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie; the post office opened as Perryville in 1820, with the spelling fixed as Perrysville in 1883. The village sits near the Greentown site and became, seventy years after the fact, the place where the region chose to remember the forced 1812 removal and burning of Greentown and the killings at the nearby Copus cabin, with a monument dedicated there in 1882. Today it is a small residential village in Green Township best known locally for that War of 1812 history and for Pleasant Hill Lake and the Mohican forest country around it.

Settled c. 1810, platted 1815 (as Freeport), by Judge Coulter and other early settlers.

Where the name comes from

The settlement was first called 'Coulterville' informally after an early settler, Judge Coulter, then platted in 1815 under the name Freeport. It was renamed Perrysville for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who commanded the American fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813 -- a name chosen in the same postwar years the War of 1812 was being commemorated regionally. The post office opened as 'Perryville' in 1820 and the spelling was standardized to 'Perrysville' in 1883.

Before the town

Perrysville stands near the site of the Delaware (Lenape) village of Greentown, which Delaware people, including a small group of Mingo, settled as early as 1783 after abandoning the village of Helltown, on high ground above the Black Fork of the Mohican River in what is now Green Township. The Greentown Delaware Village historical marker gives that founding date and the Black Fork location, and says the village was presumably named for the British loyalist Thomas Green; Chief Armstrong was its leader by 1812. After William Hull's surrender at Detroit on August 16, 1812 left the Ohio frontier exposed, militia under Colonel Kratzer removed the roughly 150 Greentown residents between about August 27 and September 3, 1812, on assurances (given partly through the settler and Methodist preacher Reverend James Copus, who was trusted by the village) that their property would be protected. After the residents were marched off, a faction of the militia burned Greentown to the ground; Chief Armstrong and others reportedly watched smoke rise from the village during the march. Believing Copus had betrayed them, Native men returned on September 15, 1812 and attacked the Copus homestead a few miles away, killing Copus and three militiamen (George Shipley, John Tedrick, and John Warnock, the last of his wounds) in what is remembered as the Copus Massacre; two to several Native attackers were also killed in the fighting. A monument to the Copus Massacre was dedicated in Perrysville on September 15, 1882, attended by an estimated 6,000 people, which is how the events at Greentown and the Copus cabin came to be memorialized at Perrysville rather than at either original site.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

• Greentown (village) — Green Township, Ashland County, on the Black Fork of the Mohican River, about 3 miles west of Perrysville, founded c. 1783, destroyed September 1812 (hmdb.org)
• Copus cabin / Copus Massacre site (battle) — near the Black Fork of the Mohican River, a few miles from Perrysville, Ashland County, September 15, 1812 (ashlandcountypictures.com)

Timeline

1. c. 1783 — Delaware people, including a small group of Mingo, abandon the village of Helltown and settle Greentown on the Black Fork of the Mohican River, near present Perrysville.
2. c. 1810 — First permanent settlers arrive at the future site of Perrysville.
3. 1812 — Between about August 27 and September 3, militia remove Greentown's Delaware residents and burn the village; on September 15, Native men attack the Copus homestead nearby, killing Reverend James Copus and three militiamen.
4. 1815 — The village is formally platted as Freeport.
5. 1820 — A post office opens under the name Perryville.
6. 1882 — A monument to the Copus Massacre is dedicated in Perrysville on September 15, the 70th anniversary of the attack, before a crowd estimated at 6,000.
7. 1883 — The post office spelling is standardized to Perrysville.

Stories

The burning of Greentown and the Copus cabin

In the last days of August 1812, with General Hull's surrender at Detroit fresh news on the frontier, Colonel Kratzer's militia moved on the Delaware village of Greentown, near the future site of Perrysville. Reverend James Copus, a settler well known and trusted at Greentown, helped persuade the roughly 150 residents to leave peacefully, on the militia's promise that their houses and stored goods would be kept safe until the war's end. The residents were marched off toward Mansfield and Piqua; as they went, some reportedly saw black smoke rising behind them -- a faction of the militia had stayed behind and put the village to the torch. Believing Copus had lied to them, a party of Native men returned two weeks later, on September 15, and attacked his homestead a few miles away, killing Copus and three militiamen posted to guard the family. Seventy years later, on the same date in 1882, the county gathered some 6,000 people in Perrysville to dedicate a monument to the dead of that day -- a memorial to a killing that grew directly out of a broken promise made to a village that no longer existed to tell its own side of the story.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · hmdb.org · ashlandcountypictures.com · en.wikipedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Perrysville Village99% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Mohican Young Star Academy1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-07-24

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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