Rich Hill Township, Muskingum County

How Rich Hill Township, Muskingum County began

Rich Hill Township, on the eastern edge of Muskingum County, is the only township of that name in Ohio. It was set off from Salt Creek Township by the county commissioners on March 8, 1815, and named by early settler John Reynolds simply 'because it was rich and hilly.' Its first settlers arrived in 1805-06: a German immigrant named Lawrence with his stepson Leonard Stitchler, followed by Lewis Pierce's party, who landed at Duncan's Falls in May 1806 and moved up Salt Creek. In the spring of 1807 a band of about thirty Shawnee warriors camped on the township's Salt Creek bottoms and quietly moved on after white farmers asked them to keep their horses off the corn crop; a prehistoric earthwork known locally as 'the Old Fort' still stands on a point of land between two branches of Williams Fork. Mount Zion Presbyterian Church, southeast of the neighboring village of Chandlersville, is the township's one National Register listing, and no municipality was ever incorporated inside it.

Settled 1805 (Lawrence and Leonard Stitchler), incorporated March 8, 1815, cut from Salt Creek Township, by Named by early settler John Reynolds; organized by order of the Muskingum County Commissioners.

Where the name comes from

The township was named by John Reynolds, an early Justice of the Peace, 'because it was rich and hilly,' according to the 1882 county history -- a plain description of the land rather than a reference to any person.

Before the town

In the spring of 1807, a band of about thirty Shawnee warriors camped on Salt Creek bottoms near the house of settler Abraham Warne. Concerned that the Indian ponies might destroy their planted corn, the white settlers asked the band's chief to move his camp; after consulting his hunters, the chief agreed, and the band left peacefully. The township also holds a prehistoric earthwork, locally called 'the Old Fort': a defensive, nearly circular twelve-sided earthwork on a point of land between the two branches of Williams Fork of Salt Creek, on the northeast quarter of section five, with a diameter of about seventy yards, a circumference of about two hundred and twenty yards, and a ditch originally some five feet deep with an inward parapet eight to ten feet high, now overgrown with forest. Neither account ties a named village or specific historic nation permanently to the township.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• The Old Fort (Rich Hill Township earthwork) (earthwork) — Point of land between the two branches of Williams Fork of Salt Creek, northeast quarter of section five, Rich Hill Township, on land owned by T. W. Moore in 1882, prehistoric (Mound Builder era) (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1805 — A German immigrant named Lawrence and his stepson, Leonard Stitchler, locate on school section sixteen -- thought to be the township's first settlers; Stitchler builds the first log cabin the same year.
2. May 12, 1806 — Lewis Pierce, his three sons, Abraham Warne, John Moore, William Robison, and John and Neal McNaughton land at Duncan's Falls and proceed up Salt Creek to settle sections nineteen, twenty, and twenty-nine.
3. spring 1807 — A band of about thirty Shawnee warriors, camped on Salt Creek bottoms near Abraham Warne's house, departs peacefully after settlers ask them to move their ponies away from the planted corn.
4. 1807 — John Moore, born in March, and Pierce Warne, born in August, are the township's first two recorded births.
5. March 8, 1815 — The Muskingum County Commissioners order Rich Hill Township erected from Salt Creek Township; John Reynolds names it for being 'rich and hilly.'
6. 1818 — Neal McNaughton builds the township's first gristmill on the east branch of Salt Creek.
7. 1824 — Abraham Warne builds the township's first sawmill.
8. 1978 — Mount Zion Presbyterian Church, southeast of Chandlersville off State Route 146, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (December 19, 1978).

Stories

Thirty warriors, and a request that worked

In the spring of 1807, with Rich Hill Township barely two years into white settlement, a band of about thirty Shawnee warriors set up camp on the Salt Creek bottoms near Abraham Warne's cabin. The settlers had already cleared ground and planted corn, and feared the band's horses would trample the new crop before it could feed their families. Rather than force the issue, they went to the chief, explained their dependence on the harvest, and asked him to move his camp elsewhere. He told them he would consult his hunters when they returned from the field; not long after, the band folded its camp and left without incident, leaving the ground to the settlers. The 1882 county history that preserved this story added a rare editorial aside for its time -- wondering aloud whether a white settler, asked the same favor, would have obliged as readily.

The Old Fort on Williams Fork

On a point of land between the two branches of Williams Fork of Salt Creek, on ground later farmed by T. W. Moore, stands one of the 'curious structures' the 1882 county history attributes to the Mound Builders: a defensive earthwork nearly circular in plan, its wall built as an irregular twelve-sided polygon roughly seventy yards across and two hundred twenty yards around. A ditch, once about five feet deep, supplied the earth thrown up to form a parapet eight to ten feet above its bottom -- an effective barrier, the historian noted, against an approaching foe. By 1882 the works were already grown over with forest trees, and no excavation of the site is recorded in the sources we checked; it survives in the record as a described but unexcavated earthwork, distinct from the elaborate (and far less credible) mound account preserved for neighboring Brush Creek Township.

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

Every historic place in Muskingum County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• New Concord53% of residentsFox Creek via New Concord reservoirs (Upper & main reservoir)
• Muskingum County Water - Se41% of residentsMuskingum River buried valley aquifer (wells near Duncan Falls)
• Western Guernsey Regional Water District6% of residentsWills Creek via Cambridge Reservoir + Wills Creek direct intake
• Pleasant City, Village Of0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 2 of 2 passed.

Ballot issues

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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-05-20
• Financial Audit, 2021 to 2022, released 2024-09-12

Cite this page