Salineville

How Salineville began

Salineville was laid out in 1839 by John and James Farmer and incorporated in 1848, taking its name and its motto, 'Salt of the Earth,' from salt deposits along Yellow Creek, where the first salt well in Columbiana County is said to have been bored about 1809. The Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad reached the village in 1852 and coal mining followed. On July 26, 1863, Union cavalry defeated the remnant of John Hunt Morgan's command at the Battle of Salineville, which Wikipedia calls the northernmost military action involving an official command of the Confederate States Army. The population peaked at 2,700 in 1920 and was 1,206 in 2020.

Settled 1839, platted 1839, incorporated 1848, by John and James Farmer.

Where the name comes from

Named for the salt deposits, or salinity, found along Yellow Creek near the village, worked by early settlers; the village's motto, 'Salt of the Earth,' carries the same reference.

Before the town

No source names a specific Native American village, camp or burial site within present Salineville's boundaries. The village sits along Yellow Creek, the same waterway associated further downstream (near Wellsville) with the Mingo leader Logan's village and the 1774 Yellow Creek massacre, though no source places Native settlement specifically at the Salineville site itself.

Timeline

1. 1809 — George James, who came to Salineville from Kentucky, is said to have bored the first salt well in Columbiana County; his two wells, 300 and 900 feet deep, gave a strong flow of water with little salt.
2. 1818 — John Farmer, who had come from New Garden in Hanover Township, buys three abandoned salt wells on Little Yellow Creek and goes into the salt business on a large scale.
3. 1835 — The salt industry reaches its height around Salineville, with 20 producing wells along Little Yellow Creek; Farmer's output is more than 50 barrels a week.
4. 1838 — James Farmer and Isaac Kirk build the first important grist mill in Salineville.
5. 1839 — Salineville is established, named for the salt deposits along Yellow Creek.
6. 1845 — James Farmer's influence is credited with bringing the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad's survey south to Salineville, where the salt works and coal mines lay, rather than north through New Lisbon and Salem; he becomes the company's second president in 1847.
7. 1848 — Salineville incorporates as a village.
8. 1850 — The Methodist Episcopal congregation, organized about 1840, builds a frame church; a brick church costing $10,500 replaces it in 1870. The Free Presbyterian church is organized January 28.
9. 1852 — The Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad is completed through Salineville; the village, which had little east of Lacock's mill before, grows quickly as coal mining develops.
10. 1853 — John Farmer sells his salt business to Isaac Kirk, who operates the wells until 1865, when salt-making at Salineville ceases to be profitable.
11. 1863-07-26 — Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. James M. Shackelford defeats the remnant of Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan's command at the Battle of Salineville; Morgan surrenders about two o'clock near West Point, about eight miles northeast of Salineville.
12. 1867 — The Ohio and Pennsylvania Coal Company is organized with $80,000 capital and takes over six of the town's largest mines, employing 200 miners from the start; by 1875 its output is 800 tons a day.
13. 1870 — The census counts 1,429 residents, up from 485 in 1860.
14. 1877 — McGarry, Black and Company build a grist mill near the Cleveland and Pittsburgh station; the Faloon brothers start the Ohio Flouring Mill the same year.
15. 1880 — The census counts 2,302 residents.
16. 1920 — Salineville's population peaks at 2,700.
17. 2020 — The census counts 1,206 residents.

Stories

The northernmost battle of the Confederacy

On July 26, 1863, Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. James M. Shackelford destroyed what remained of John Hunt Morgan's cavalry at the Battle of Salineville, ending Morgan's Raid. Morgan had left Tennessee with about 2,460 troopers; he surrendered at about 2 p.m. to Maj. George W. Rue of the 9th Kentucky Cavalry near West Point, about eight miles northeast of Salineville. Wikipedia calls the battle the northernmost military action involving an official command of the Confederate States Army.

Salt-boilers on Little Yellow Creek

Salineville began as a place to boil salt. George James, from Kentucky, is said to have bored the first salt well in Columbiana County about 1809; in 1818 John Farmer bought three wells that others had abandoned and made a business of it, and by 1835 there were twenty producing wells along Little Yellow Creek. The 1879 county history notes that the salt-boilers made up a numerous and sometimes boisterous community, for they 'considered it one of the moral obligations of existence that it should be kept in a state of proper and lively agitation.' Farmer's son James carried the fortune into coal and railroads, and John sold the wells in 1853 to Isaac Kirk, who worked them until 1865, when salt from Michigan and New York undersold them. The village kept the name, and the motto 'Salt of the Earth.'

The railroad that was bent to reach Salineville

When the directors of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad chose their route on October 29, 1845, one of the original surveys ran far north of Salineville, through New Lisbon and Salem. The promoters of the Sandy and Beaver Canal, which reached New Lisbon in 1846, opposed a competing railroad, and no railroad feeling could be roused there. James Farmer, a Salineville merchant who had run a steamer of his own to St. Louis and New Orleans, argued instead for a southern line touching his village, where the salt works and the coal measures lay, and the survey was bent south. The 1905 county history says the change lengthened the line to Pittsburgh and that the directors later regretted it, but when the road opened in 1852 its locomotives were among the first in the country to burn coal instead of wood, drawn from the Salineville mines.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Buckeye Water District - Ohio River100% of residentsOhio River

Community health centers (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Police stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 4 of 4 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-10-16

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