Scioto Township, Pike County

How Scioto Township, Pike County began

Scioto Township, one of five of that name in Ohio, is the youngest of Pike County's fourteen townships, organized June 4, 1851 out of Seal Township. It lies in the south of the county east of the Scioto River, which forms its west boundary, and was settled mostly by Virginians, who at first kept to the ridges above the flood-prone bottoms. It has no village: Big Run, on the Scioto Valley Railroad, was surveyed in 1881 but never platted, and the post offices were at Wetmore and Wakefield. Two of the county's eight National Register listings are in it, the precontact earthwork Scioto Township Works I and the Vanmeter Stone House and Outbuildings; the township had 1,061 residents in 2020.

Settled 1799-1801 (Presley Boydston, 1799; John Barnes, 1801), incorporated June 4, 1851 (township organization), by formed from Seal Township.

Where the name comes from

The township takes its name from the Scioto River, which forms its western boundary; no further detail was found in the sources read.

Before the town

Scioto Township Works I, listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 9, 1974, is a precontact earthwork about a mile west of the Scioto River, north of Wakefield; we found no nomination or description, so its builders' culture, period and layout are not confirmed. The Scioto Valley was home to the Adena, Hopewell and Fort Ancient peoples and the Shawnee; the township's own Native record is otherwise blank in the sources read. The land lies east of the Scioto, within the area ceded by the Treaty of Greenville (August 3, 1795); the first settlers, Presley Boydston in 1799 and John Barnes in 1801, came within a few years of it.

• Scioto Township Works I (earthwork) — about 1 mile west of the Scioto River, north of Wakefield, Scioto Township, Pike County, Ohio, precontact (cultural affiliation not confirmed) (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1799 — Presley Boydston buys 1,400 acres in what becomes Scioto Township, later dividing 1,200 of them among his children.
2. 1801 — John Barnes, who came to Pee Pee Township, buys land in the future Scioto Township, among the first purchases there; he was twice a member of the legislature and a Common Pleas judge.
3. after 1815 — Levi Moore, born in Virginia in 1788, arrives soon after the county is organized, one of the early Virginian settlers; Captain Elisha Peters, a veteran of the War of 1812, comes from Ross County.
4. 1823 — Isaac Vanmeter's son John builds the sandstone-and-brick house, on land bought from Piketon's founder in 1801, that is now the Vanmeter Stone House.
5. 1835 — Barnes Methodist Episcopal Chapel is built; the 1884 history calls the congregation the first organization in Pike County, though other Pike County congregations are dated earlier, and services ceased in 1874 when members moved to the Piketon church.
6. about 1838 — Baity Chapel (Methodist Episcopal) is organized in the township's east.
7. June 4, 1851 — Scioto Township is formed from Seal Township, the youngest in the county; the first election is ordered for June 17 at the house of C. W. Bailey.
8. 1851 — The first township officers are trustees John H. Towner, I. N. Barnes and Henry Priest, assessor Samuel Johnson, treasurer C. W. Bailey and clerk Ansel Sanford.
9. 1860 — Wetmore post office is established with G. W. Coffrin as postmaster; the township has 696 residents.
10. November 1, 1861 — The line with Union Township is moved a half mile in the northeast, on petition of trustees John H. Towner and Philip Baldman.
11. 1864 — The Mt. Gilead Church of Christ in Christian Union is organized by Alfred Moore with fifteen members and builds a $1,000 frame church in 1865.
12. 1870 — The township has 772 residents.
13. 1880 — Wakefield post office is established at the Scioto Valley Railroad station with Thomas Taylor as postmaster; the township has 921 residents.
14. 1881 — Big Run, on the railroad in the south-central part, is surveyed by C. W. Bailey; six acres are laid off but the hamlet is never platted.
15. July 1882 — G.A.R. Post No. 245 is mustered with twenty charter members.
16. 1882 — The assessed valuation is $445,206; the township's chattel property in 1880, $138,614, was exceeded only by that of Pee Pee, Seal and Jackson.
17. October 9, 1974 — Scioto Township Works I is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
18. March 31, 1975 — The Vanmeter Stone House and Outbuildings is listed on the National Register.
19. 2020 — The census counts 1,061 residents in the township.

Stories

The Vanmeter Stone House

Isaac Vanmeter bought the property in 1801 from Piketon's founder, a Mr. Guthrie, then went back to Virginia and gave the land to his son John I. Vanmeter, who had finished his studies in the East. John settled the farm, built the house in 1823, raised livestock and a variety of crops, and served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives; he left the house in 1856 but the family stayed, and by the 1970s the sixth generation lived there. It is a plain two-story sandstone and brick I-house with a three-bay front, and it was listed on the National Register on March 31, 1975. The farm once reached northeast as far as the twin Piketon Mounds, and the family, cutting only some trees, started one of Ohio's earliest tree farms. Wikipedia's county list places the house in Scioto Township, but the 1884 county history puts the Vanmeter farm, part of the old Wynn homestead, in Seal Township, so its township is not settled by these sources.

A township with no town

Scioto Township never had a village. Settled mostly by Virginians who at first took the ridges and shunned the river bottoms for fear of the annual or semi-annual floods, it filled up slowly with farms, and the county historian noted that railroad ties were cut in the eastern timber. In 1881 C. W. Bailey surveyed six acres at Big Run, on the new Scioto Valley Railroad, but the prospect did not seem good and the hamlet was never platted; the principal business was done by the Cutliffs. The township's mail came instead through two post offices that were 'simply a postoffice,' Wetmore, opened in 1860 with G. W. Coffrin as postmaster, and Wakefield, opened in 1880 at the railroad station with Thomas Taylor. A 1958 county history says Wakefield was known as Big Run. The township's voting population in 1883 was a little under 200.

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

Groundwater wells (3 wells) The water here

• Piketon Village42% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Pike Water, Inc.-plant25% of residentsTeays Valley Buried Valley Aquifer (wells near Jasper)
• Northwest Regional Water District15% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (wells near SR 348)
• Scioto Co. Regional Water District #19% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (wells near SR 348)
• Beaver5% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Scioto Water Inc.-rose Hill2% of residentsPurchased: Scioto Co. Regional Water Dist. #1 (Teays Valley Aquifer)
• Dawsons Mobile Home Park1% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Scioto Water, Inc.-davis Camp1% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (wells near SR 348)
• Portsmouth City0% of residentsOhio River

Bridges rated poor (1)

Superfund sites (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (4)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

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, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-05

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