Reading Township, Perry County

How Reading Township, Perry County began

Reading Township was organized about 1805 and named for Reading, Pennsylvania, the home region of many of its settlers. Its village of New Reading, settled in 1801 and platted in 1805 by founder Peter Overmyer (the settlement was long known locally as Overmyertown), was the first town platted anywhere in Perry County and unsuccessfully sought the county seat in 1817. Somerset, in the township's north, held that seat instead from the county's creation in 1817 until 1857, grew up along Zane's Trace, and is remembered as the boyhood home of Civil War cavalry general Philip Sheridan.

Settled 1801, platted 1805, by settlers from the Reading, Pennsylvania area; New Reading platted by Peter Overmyer.

Where the name comes from

Named after Reading, Pennsylvania.

Before the town

No permanent Native American town is recorded within Reading Township. The 1795 Treaty of Greenville opened this part of Ohio to settlement not long before Somerset was founded in 1807 along Zane's Trace; the 1883 county history places the land generally within Shawnee, Delaware (Lenape) and Wyandot hunting territory between the Muskingum and Scioto rivers, crossed by Indian trails, with no site specific to this township named.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware), Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1805 — Reading Township is organized and named for Reading, Pennsylvania; New Reading, settled in 1801, is platted by Peter Overmyer as the first platted town in what becomes Perry County.
2. 1807 — Somerset is founded along Zane's Trace by Pennsylvania Germans Jacob Miller and John Finck, who each build a two-story log tavern facing the road.
3. 1817 — Perry County is created from parts of Fairfield, Muskingum and Washington counties; New Reading contends for the county seat but loses to Somerset.
4. 1819 — The first purpose-built Perry County courthouse is erected at Somerset.
5. 1828 — The Randolph Mitchell House, a Federal-style brick 'I' house, is built for merchant Randolph Mitchell in New Reading.
6. 1829 — A permanent Federal-style courthouse (now the Old Perry County Courthouse) is built on Somerset's public square for $6,600.
7. 1832 — The Sheridan family settles in Somerset, where young Philip Sheridan grows up.
8. 1843 — Saint Joseph's Catholic Church, home to Ohio's oldest Catholic parish, is built in Somerset in the Gothic/High Victorian Revival style designed by Thomas Spare.
9. 1857 — The Perry County seat moves from Somerset to New Lexington after a multi-year legal contest.
10. 1859 — The Sheridan House at 417 S. Columbus St., Somerset, is built by General Philip Sheridan for family members in Carpenter Gothic style.
11. 1880 — The Bowman Mill Covered Bridge is built south of New Reading on Winegardner Road by Lank Bowman; it is moved to the Perry County Fairgrounds in Pike Township in 1987.
12. 1975 — The Somerset Historic District, including the old courthouse, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stories

New Reading, first platted but never the seat

New Reading was settled in 1801 by Peter Overmyer and platted in 1805, before any other town in what would become Perry County, and for years it was known locally as Overmyertown for its founder. When the county was organized in 1817, New Reading put itself forward for the county seat, but the honor went instead to Somerset, up the road, and the smaller village never grew large enough to challenge again. It remained a working crossroads through the nineteenth century, anchored by merchant Randolph Mitchell's fine 1828 brick house, tannery and store, which still stands and carries his name.

Two taverns and a boyhood in Somerset

Somerset grew up in 1807 along Zane's Trace, the first federally funded road in Ohio, when Pennsylvania Germans Jacob Miller and John Finck each bought a quarter-section and each built a two-story log tavern on opposite sides of the road to serve the stream of settlers heading west. The village became Perry County's first seat in 1817 and kept it until 1857. Among the families who settled there in 1832 were the Sheridans, whose son Philip grew up in Somerset before going on to command Union cavalry in the Civil War; the house General Sheridan later built there for his family, and the courthouse square where he is memorialized, remain the village's best-known landmarks.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · ohiomemory.org · commons.wikimedia.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com

Every historic place in Perry County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Somerset Village Of80% of residentsSomerset Reservoir + Lake St. Joseph
• New Lexington9% of residentsNew Lexington Reservoir(s) (Old & New Reservoir)
• Rushville Village6% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Thornville, Village Of2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Northern Perry Co.water #12% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Buckeye Lake, Village Of1% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Junction City1% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Licking County Harbor Hills0% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Southern Perry Co-mainesville0% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Northern Perry Co.water #20% of residentsHocking River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Roberts Trailer Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

High-hazard dams (1)

Public schools (2)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-10

Cite this page