Salt Creek Township, Pickaway County

How Salt Creek Township, Pickaway County began

Salt Creek Township, in the county's southeastern corner along the Hocking County line, was carved from territory taken out of Fairfield County when Pickaway County was formed in 1810, and squatters had already worked its rich bottomland along Salt Creek before the government put the land up for sale in 1801. Tarlton, first platted as Newellstown in 1801 by Benjamin Newell, grew up on the old road from Kentucky to the seat of government, where Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay were both remembered stopping on their travels. An undisturbed Adena burial mound, the Horn Mound, still stands southeast of Tarlton. On the township's western edge, near the boundary with Pickaway Township, the hamlet of Leistville kept a post office from 1846 to 1902, and a separate, shorter-lived post office literally named Camp Charlotte operated nearby from 1851 to 1867 (the record does not make clear whether it and Leistville were truly two offices), a name recalling Lord Dunmore's 1774 treaty encampment, whose own site the county history places just across the line in neighboring Pickaway Township.

Settled before 1801 (squatters along Salt Creek, ahead of the government land sale), incorporated 1810, formed with Pickaway County from territory taken out of Fairfield County.

Where the name comes from

Both the 1880 and 1906 county histories state only that Salt Creek, the township's principal stream, 'gives its name to the township,' without explaining why the creek itself is called Salt. No source consulted describes a salt spring, salt lick, or salt works anywhere in the township, despite a search of both county histories for those terms; the connection between the creek's name and any salt source worked by Native people or early settlers could not be confirmed.

Before the town

No source consulted names a historic Native American village, trail, or treaty event within Salt Creek Township itself. One prehistoric site is documented: the Horn Mound, an Adena-culture burial mound at the junction of Armstrong and Moccasin roads southeast of Tarlton, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and described as appearing 'virtually undisturbed by human exploration.' The township's western edge, near the hamlet of Leistville, lies close to the Pickaway Plains, the documented core of Shawnee settlement in the 1770s and the site of Lord Dunmore's War's Camp Charlotte encampment of October 1774; a post office actually named Camp Charlotte operated in this vicinity from 1851 to 1867, but the 1906 county history places the encampment's own physical site across the township line in Pickaway Township, section 12, not within Salt Creek Township. That fuller Native history is covered in the Pickaway Township file; no county-level file yet exists for Pickaway County to point to for the wider picture.

Nations recorded here: Adena culture.

• Horn Mound (mound) — junction of Armstrong and Moccasin roads, southeast of Tarlton, Adena (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. before 1801 — Squatters including Alexander Berry, John May, Conrad Kline, Matthias Hedges, Andrew Bussard, Christopher Myers, Jacob Sayler Sr. and George Pontious settle along Salt Creek ahead of the government land sale.
2. 1801 — Benjamin Newell lays out the village of Newellstown, later renamed Tarlton, on Salt Creek; the same spring John Shoemaker, from Berks County, Pennsylvania, becomes the first man to enter land in the township at the government sale.
3. 1802 — John Shoemaker's land patent, dated April 20, is issued over the signatures of Thomas Jefferson as president and James Madison as secretary of state.
4. 1810 or 1811 — Abraham Barnet erects a sawmill on Salt Creek at Tarlton; George Wolf buys the property in 1815 and adds a flouring mill.
5. 1840 — The last bear killed in Pickaway County is shot in Salt Creek Township by Jonathan Dreisbach and John Reichelderfer, who fire on the treed animal simultaneously.
6. 1843 — The Ohio Legislature, on March 7, attaches the part of Adelphi lying within Salt Creek Township to Ross County.
7. 1846 — A post office named Leistville is established in the township, on its western edge near the Pickaway Township line.
8. 1851-1867 — A separate post office named Camp Charlotte, recalling Lord Dunmore's 1774 encampment nearby, operates in the vicinity.
9. 1861 — St. Jacob's Evangelical Lutheran Church is organized at Tarlton on November 8, formalizing a Lutheran society that had worshiped there since about 1807.
10. 1902 — The Leistville post office, in operation since 1846, is discontinued.
11. 1974 — The Horn Mound, southeast of Tarlton, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 7.

Stories

Newellstown Becomes Tarlton

Benjamin Newell laid out the village that would become Tarlton in 1801, and for years it was known simply as Newellstown after him. The first building was Christopher Myers's log cabin, and the first tavern was kept by John Shoemaker in his own log dwelling, but the village's real importance came from its position on the old road east from Kentucky. According to the 1906 county history, both Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay stopped in the village on their way to the seat of government, drawn by the same road that carried the ordinary traffic of settlers and traders through the township. A post office had opened at Tarlton before the War of 1812, and the road that made the town matter continued to carry travelers through it for decades after Newell's name was dropped from the map.

A Post Office Named for an Old Camp

Near the western edge of Salt Creek Township, not far from where Lord Dunmore's army made peace with the Shawnee and Mingo in October 1774, two small post offices kept the memory of that encounter alive in different ways. Leistville, named for the pioneer preacher Jacob Leist who settled there and preached for decades, ran a post office from 1846 until 1902. A separate office, named outright Camp Charlotte after Dunmore's treaty encampment, operated nearby from 1851 to 1867, though whether it was truly separate from Leistville's office is not clear. The 1906 county history locates the actual camp itself on Scippo Creek in section 12 of neighboring Pickaway Township, so the post office bearing its name sat, like Leistville, just across the line from the ground it commemorated.

Photographs

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

Eight wells in the buried Teays River Aquifer, in the Scioto valley north of Chillicothe The water here

• Circleville City37% of residentsScioto River valley aquifer (sand & gravel wells)
• Ross County Water Co. Inc29% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Kingston Village18% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Laurelville, Vlg Of8% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Earnhart Hill Water District6% of residentsScioto River valley (Teays) aquifer wells
• Amanda Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• South Bloomfield Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Mounds and earthworks (1)

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 2026-05-07
• Special Audit, 2024, released 2026-03-05

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