Scott Township, Adams County

How Scott Township, Adams County began

Scott Township in northern Adams County was formed on February 25, 1818, from the north part of Wayne Township and named, by Evans and Stivers's 1900 county history, for Edwin Scott, an old and respected citizen. Its first settlers came about 1800 to West Fork and George's Creek: the McIntyres, Robert Elliott, John Hamilton and others, joined in 1802 by the Gaston and McCreight families from South Carolina. A round-log schoolhouse went up in 1807 and the Tranquility United Presbyterian congregation was formed the same year. John T. Wilson opened a store at what became Tranquility in 1832, and his home was a station on the Underground Railroad; the village of Seaman was laid out on the Cincinnati & Eastern line in 1888. On the Criswell farm on West Fork a Shawnee village site, the 'Indian bottoms,' was still used as a camp in 1803.

Settled c. 1800, incorporated February 25, 1818, by Settlers on West Fork and George's Creek; formed by the county commissioners from Wayne Township.

Where the name comes from

Evans and Stivers's 1900 county history says the township was named in honor of Edwin Scott, an old and respected citizen.

Before the town

Evans and Stivers's 1900 county history records that on the Criswell farm on West Fork, at a place called the 'Indian bottoms,' was the village site of a tribe of Shawnee Indians, and that families of these Indians came there to camp as late as 1803. A son of James Montgomery, a lad of about sixteen who had become friends with the Indian boys, ran away from home and went with them to their villages on Mad River and could never be induced to return. The land is within the Virginia Military District.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Indian bottoms, Shawnee village site and camp (village) — Criswell farm on West Fork, Scott Township, to 1803 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1800 — John McIntyre and William McIntyre (on the later Wilson lands at Tranquility), Robert Elliott, John Hamilton, Reuben Smith, James Montgomery, George Secrist and John Oliver are among the first settlers, who come about this year.
2. 1802 — Joseph Gaston and the McCreight families (David, Mathew and James) come from South Carolina to George's Creek; the Williamsons, Simmondses, Martins and McCulloughs follow a few years later.
3. 1807 — The Tranquility United Presbyterian Church is formed, first as the West Fork Association, with ten founding families; a round-log schoolhouse is built the same year on the hill near its site, with Samuel McCollister and James McGill as the first teachers. The log Hopewell Meeting House follows about 1810 and is replaced by a frame church in 1853.
4. 1818 — The township is formed on February 25 from the north part of Wayne Township and named for Edwin Scott; Manchester and part of Oliver Township were later cut from it.
5. 1830s-1850s — Wilson's home in Scott Township served as a station on the Underground Railroad, part of what Calvin Rankin later called "Ripley's Eastern Route."
6. 1832 — John T. Wilson, who had arrived in Adams County at age 21 from Virginia by way of the antislavery Flat Run Methodist community in Highland County, settled at what became Tranquility and began working as a merchant.
7. 1848 — A post office named Tranquility, the name suggested by John T. Wilson, is established with John McCreight as the first postmaster; Wilson had opened a small store in 1832 half a mile above the village, and W. A. Blair built his store room there in 1861.
8. 1850 — A post office is established at May Hill, a hamlet that grew up round a country store in the northeast, with John A. Williamson as postmaster.
9. 1861-1865 — During the Civil War, Wilson helped recruit and personally outfit the 70th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served as one of its officers.
10. 1866 — The Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal congregation is organized; a frame church is built in 1868 in the northeast corner and later moved to Seaman.
11. 1888 — The village of Seaman is laid out on the lands of Mrs. Ann Mower after the Cincinnati & Eastern, later the Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia, was extended from Winchester toward Portsmouth; J. Q. Roads keeps the first store.
12. 1889 — Craven Edward Silcott, born near Seaman and long a merchant at Youngsville, flees the country as cashier to the House Sergeant-at-Arms, John P. Leedom, a defaulter for $75,000.
13. 1977 — The John T. Wilson Homestead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 11.

Stories

A merchant's antislavery station at Tranquility

John T. Wilson arrived in Adams County at 21 from Virginia, carrying antislavery convictions formed in the Flat Run Methodist community of neighboring Highland County. In 1832 he settled at a site he named Tranquility and built a career there as a merchant; the village he founded grew, at its peak, to about 40 homes along with a funeral home, a millinery shop, and other businesses. Through the 1830s to 1850s his own home functioned as a station on the Underground Railroad, part of a network local historian Calvin Rankin later described as "Ripley's Eastern Route," ferrying escaping freedom seekers north from the Ohio River. Wilson's later life carried him into national politics as a Radical Republican congressman, and he used his wealth to fund the Adams County Children's Home, but the homestead at Tranquility remains the clearest physical trace of his antislavery work.

A cashier from Youngsville

Craven Edward Silcott was born and reared on the family homestead near what became Seaman and kept a general store at Youngsville, two miles south, which was founded by David Young in 1840. In 1878 the Democrats nominated him for county auditor, and the bitter campaign that followed made a close friend of one of his supporters, John P. Leedom, who became Adams County's member of Congress and then Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives. Leedom took Silcott to Washington to be his cashier and chief accountant; the Sergeant paid members' salaries from their vouchers, so hundreds of thousands of dollars passed through the cashier's hands. Evans and Stivers says life in Washington, the lobby and the races pulled the genial merchant from Youngsville down, and in 1889 he fled the country, an embezzler of $75,000. Leedom's Adams County friends who had gone on his bond found that he had not given a new bond for his second term, so the first was void. Silcott fled to Mexico, where his family joined him and where he later died; Leedom lost his friends and standing and died penniless. The county history leaves open whether Silcott took the blame for Leedom or betrayed him.

Local history sources: maysville-online.com · appalachianfreedom.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org

Every historic place in Adams County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Seaman Village89% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Adams County Regional Wd9% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Peebles Public Water System2% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)

Dialysis centers (1)

Nursing homes (1)

Public schools (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (2)

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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-19

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