Piketon

• Elmo StollPerson · 1944-1998
• Robert LucasPerson · 1781-1853
• Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, PiketonInvention or first · 1954

How Piketon began

Piketon was platted in 1814 as "Jefferson," named for Thomas Jefferson, on land the Chenoweth brothers had settled a few years before; a year later, when Pike County was organized, the town was renamed Piketon and made the county seat. Eli Sargent, the commissioner appointed to locate the county seat, took a deed to the 43-acre town plat from Elisha and Susannah Fitch on May 12, 1815. Robert Lucas, later governor of both Ohio and Iowa Territory, did business in Piketon in its earliest years and built a house called Friendly Grove nearby around 1824, making the town a hub of local political life. The county seat moved to Waverly in 1861 after entrepreneur James Emmitt engineered the change, but Piketon remained a working river and rail town, and since the 1950s has been closely tied to the federal Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant just outside it.

Platted 1814, as Jefferson; renamed Piketon in 1815, by platted as Jefferson on Chenoweth-settled land; deed to the town plat passed from Elisha and Susannah Fitch to commissioner Eli Sargent, May 12, 1815.

Where the name comes from

The village was first platted in 1814 as Jefferson, after Thomas Jefferson. When Pike County was organized the next year and named for General Zebulon M. Pike, the hamlet of Jefferson was renamed Piketon to match.

Before the town

No native-specific history for the village of Piketon itself was found in the sources consulted. The Piketon Mounds, an Adena/Hopewell-period earthwork site of four mounds in a cemetery (the largest 75 feet across and 25 feet high) plus a graded way, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (added May 2, 1974) at "Mound Cemetery, south of Piketon," in neighboring Seal Township rather than inside the village's corporate limits.

• Piketon Mounds (mound) — Mound Cemetery, south of Piketon, Seal Township, Pike County, Ohio, precontact, Adena and Hopewell (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1814 — The town that became Piketon was platted under the name Jefferson, near where the Chenoweth brothers had settled a few years earlier.
2. 1815 — Pike County was organized and Piketon (renamed that year from Jefferson) became its first county seat; the deed to the 43-acre town plat passed from Elisha and Susannah Fitch to commissioner Eli Sargent on May 12, and was recorded May 17.
3. 1816 — Reminiscing decades later, early resident David Ware recalled that when he arrived in April 1816 the country was still wilderness; the first house in Piketon had been built by Enoch Mounts and later used as an inn, the first store was opened by General Kendell and Robert Lucas, and the first blacksmith was Colonel Moore.
4. 1816 — Clark's Addition, the town's first addition, was surveyed, finishing September 17.
5. 1817 — The first post office in Pike County was established in Piketon, with John Hines as the first postmaster; he reportedly kept the mail safe in his own hat.
6. 1819 — The Pike County Court House was completed in Piketon.
7. c. 1824 — Robert Lucas, who would later serve as governor of Ohio and then as the first governor of Iowa Territory, built a house called Friendly Grove about two miles east of Piketon, which became a hub of local political activity.
8. 1845 — Piketon's first steamer, the America, arrived at the port at 2 p.m. on February 1, the first and apparently only steamer ever to ply the Scioto this far up.
9. 1852 — The Piketon Agricultural Society was organized and held its first fair that fall in an unfenced lot, with a rope for a show ring; it held fairs for four years before folding when the Civil War began and the county seat moved away.
10. 1857 — Piketon Lodge No. 323, I.O.O.F., was organized July 17.
11. 1861 — The Pike County seat moved from Piketon to Waverly after a campaign led by entrepreneur James Emmitt.
12. 1877 — The Scioto Valley Railroad's first passenger train reached Piketon on November 4, after the first shovel of dirt for the line had been turned in Snowden Sargent's field that May.
13. 1971 — The Pike County Dogwood Festival, still held in the Piketon area, was established.
14. 1974 — The Piketon Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 28.
15. 2005 — The American Centrifuge Demonstration Facility began operations at the nearby former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site.

Stories

Robert Lucas and Friendly Grove

Robert Lucas came to Pike County as a young man and, with General Kendell, opened Piketon's first store; one of the village's own clerks, Hallam Hemstead, recorded that he worked for "Robert Lucas and Captain Cissna" from November 1815 until late 1821. Lucas then built Friendly Grove, a brick house about two miles east of Piketon, around 1824, and ran his political career from it, rising to the Ohio governorship (1832-1836) and then, by federal appointment, to the governorship of Iowa Territory. Friendly Grove became a center of local political activity during his years there, and the house was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

David Ware remembers Piketon's first days

Old settler David Ware left a reminiscence of arriving in Piketon in April 1816, when "the country was all a wilderness, there being but a few farms yet occupied." The town had been laid out the year before and only a scattering of buildings stood. The first house, he recalled, was built by Enoch Mounts and later used as an inn; the first store was opened by General Kendell, a Revolutionary War veteran, and Robert Lucas, stocked with goods worth $400 or $500; the first wagon-maker was John Nessel, the first blacksmith Colonel Moore, and the first shoemakers Hinds and Maylme. Ware compared Piketon's rise and eventual eclipse, after the county seat left for Waverly, to the fortunes of Athens and Rome: a town that "bid fair to blot the pages of history with as much interest as any town in the valley."

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

Groundwater wells (3 wells) The water here

• Piketon Village62% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Pike Water, Inc.-plant37% of residentsTeays Valley Buried Valley Aquifer (wells near Jasper)
• Dawsons Mobile Home Park1% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Community health centers (3)

Nursing homes (2)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (1)

Private schools (1)

Public libraries (1)

Police stations (1)

Public EV charging (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 1 of 1 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

• Fiscal emergency: declared 2004-07-08, released 2009-10-15. source
• Fiscal watch: declared 2000-12-28, released 2004-07-08. source
• Financial Audit, 2024, released 2026-07-07
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-11-26

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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