Pleasant Township, Brown County

How Pleasant Township, Brown County began

Pleasant Township was one of the original five townships into which Clermont County was divided at the first term of its Justices' Court of General Quarter Sessions, February 25, 1801, and it holds Georgetown, the Brown County seat, which is covered in its own file. Five Ellis brothers floated down the Ohio from Virginia by keelboat in 1796; James and Samuel Ellis stopped a mile and a half above the mouth of White Oak Creek and are regarded as the township's first permanent white settlers, while their brother Nathan continued on to found Aberdeen. Capt. Daniel Feagins, a Revolutionary War veteran and Indian scout trained by Simon Kenton, settled near the future site of Georgetown about 1796.

Settled 1796 (Ellis brothers), incorporated 1801-02-25, by Justices' Court of General Quarter Sessions, Clermont County.

Where the name comes from

No documented source for the township's name exists.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound or trail specific to Pleasant Township is recorded, though the 1883 county history notes that Indians frequently passed over the old State road between West Union and Cincinnati, which crossed the township's northern part, as late as 1807-1810. The township lies within the 1795 Treaty of Greenville cession and the Virginia Military District.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Miami.

Timeline

1. 1796 — Five Ellis brothers -- Samuel, James, Hezekiah, Jeremiah and Nathan -- float down the Ohio River from Virginia by keelboat; James and Samuel stop a mile and a half above the mouth of White Oak Creek and are considered the township's first permanent white settlers.
2. c. 1796 — Capt. Daniel Feagins, a Revolutionary War officer and Indian scout who had been trained alongside Simon Kenton, settles just south of the future site of Georgetown, on the farm adjoining what became the fairgrounds.
3. 1798 — Walter Wall, formerly a farmer and distiller in western Pennsylvania, descends the Ohio by flat-boat and settles on the Heath Survey in the south central part of the township; the township's early elections were held at his house until his wife asked that they stop, after intoxicated voters overwhelmed the cabin on election nights.
4. 1801-02-25 — Pleasant Township becomes one of the original five townships into which Clermont County is divided at the first term of the Justices' Court of General Quarter Sessions, alongside Williamsburg, Ohio, Washington and O'Bannon townships.
5. 1807 — Lewis Township is formed from the eastern end of Washington Township and takes in part of what had been Pleasant; further neighboring townships later cut Pleasant down to 23,153 acres, third largest in the county.
6. 1807 — From 1807 to 1810 Indians are seen frequently passing along the State road from West Union to Cincinnati across the northern part of the township, past Amos Moore's inn on the later John Roney place.
7. c. 1810 — The Straight Creek Presbyterian congregation, moved from Union Township to be nearer its members, builds a 30-by-30-foot log church near Wall's Cemetery on the Heath Survey; the exact date is not recorded.
8. 1818 — Robert McCurdy teaches in a schoolhouse in the woods near Hilman's Church; Alexander Innis teaches on the William Wall place about 1819 and on the Pangburn farm about 1820.
9. 1820 — John Abbott builds a sawmill on Straight Creek about this time and rebuilds his mill there in 1832 or 1833; William Huggins's two-run mill, with a tread-wheel for low water, is the earlier of the Straight Creek mills.
10. 1833 — Eighteen mills are in operation in Pleasant Township, according to Wikipedia; we found no other source for it.
11. 1842-05 — Henry Pierce builds and puts into operation a grist-mill on White Oak Creek, with three run of buhrs -- two for wheat, one for corn -- on the site of an earlier fulling and saw mill built by his father.
12. 1843 — Edward Thompson builds the upper and lower Thompson Mills on White Oak Creek west of Georgetown and buys the middle mill built earlier by John Davidson; the lower one, the Tunnel Mill, costs $2,500 and draws water through a tunnel cut through a hill.
13. 1881 — Henry Pierce, who built his three-buhr grist mill on White Oak Creek in 1842 and shipped flour down the Ohio, dies; the mill is practically abandoned by the early 1880s as the township has nine school subdistricts.
14. 2020 — The census counts 5,643 people in Pleasant Township.

Stories

Fielding Feagins avenges Absalom Craig

Fielding Feagins, son of Capt. Daniel Feagins, was hunting deer near Augusta, Kentucky with his brother-in-law Absalom Craig when a party of Indians fired on them, killing Craig as he stooped to drink from a spring; Fielding barely escaped, abandoning his horse and the day's kill. Years later, near Georgetown, two roving Indians appeared at Fielding's cabin asking for food. Fielding recognized the shot-pouch worn by one of them as the very one Craig had carried when he was killed. He followed the pair after they left, shot and killed the man wearing it, and buried the body on the bank of White Oak Creek, throwing his rifle into the water and keeping the killing secret for decades -- until the flood of 1832 washed the skeleton back into view.

Mrs. Lyon sells her feather beds to pay the harvest crew

William Lyon, an Irish immigrant who had worked as a chain-carrier for surveyor Duncan McArthur before settling in Pleasant Township before 1800, was once away boating farm produce to Cincinnati when the wheat ripened and needed cutting. His wife had hired workers but had no cash to pay them and none in the house. She ripped open all the family's feather beds, packed the feathers, carried them on horseback to Cincinnati, sold them, and returned with the money in time to pay the harvest crew before her husband got back.

Shaker meetings on Camp Run

The earliest preaching of which the county history has any knowledge in Pleasant Township was a series of Shaker meetings at John Sharp's house on Camp Run, in the northeastern part of the township. William Jennings remembered that from his father's cabin, half a mile or more away, he could hear the wild shouting and dancing. The meetings were very successful: Sharp and his whole family but one son, Benjamin, joined the community and went with it to Warren County, and families from the upper waters of Straight Creek followed. One of the Sharp boys, Nathan, rose to an important office of trust in the sect and then disappeared with a large sum of money. The history gives no date for the meetings.

Three mills for three sons

The Thompson Mills on White Oak Creek, just west of Georgetown, were at one time the most important in the county. They stood three within a quarter mile, two in Pleasant Township and the upper one in Lewis. Edward Thompson built the upper and lower mills about 1843 and bought the middle one, which John Davidson had built early and which passed through several millers, among them Samuel Horne and James Sidwell. He then gave each of his three sons a mill, the upper to James, the middle to John, and the lower to William. The lower one, called the Tunnel Mill, took its water through a long tunnel cut at great expense through a hill, and cost $2,500. The mills bought grain as far away as Highland County and shipped their flour down the Ohio.

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

Every historic place in Brown County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Georgetown Village95% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Tate-monroe Water Association5% of residentsOhio River valley aquifer (collector/vertical wells)

Nursing homes (1)

Power plants (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-18: county board of elections.

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 2025-12-23

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