Scott Township, Brown County

How Scott Township, Brown County began

Scott Township was formed in 1828 by uniting detached parts of the original Clark and Franklin townships. Robert Wardlow, who purchased about 300 acres on the east bank of White Oak Creek in the spring of 1800, is credited as the earliest settler, followed in 1801 by Col. Henry Zumatt, who built the township's first grist-mill there in 1808, and in 1803 by Lewis Shick. It holds the village of New Hope, founded about 1808 by Daniel Holloway and Lawrence Rose, along with the hamlets of White Oak Valley and Wallsburg.

Settled 1800 (Robert Wardlow), incorporated 1828, by Brown County, uniting detached parts of Clark and Franklin townships.

Where the name comes from

No documented source for the township's name was found.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound or trail specific to Scott Township is recorded in the sources checked. The township lies within the 1795 Treaty of Greenville cession and the Virginia Military District.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Miami.

Timeline

1. 1800 — Robert Wardlow purchases and settles about 300 acres on the east bank of White Oak Creek in the extreme northern part of the township, its earliest credited settler.
2. 1801 — Col. Henry Zumatt, born in Harrison County, Kentucky in 1771 and a veteran of Indian fighting on the Kentucky frontier, crosses the Ohio River and settles a mile south of New Hope, on land he bought for $2 an acre.
3. 1808 — Henry Zumatt erects a grist-mill on the site of what became Henry Young's flouring mill -- the first mill of any kind in the township, before which settlers had to cross the Ohio River to Augusta, Kentucky for flour.
4. c. 1808 — Daniel Holloway, with the help of neighbors, lays the foundation of the first house in what becomes New Hope, a single-room log structure; Lawrence Rose builds the second house soon after.
5. 1812 — George Bingamon buys and settles on the west bank of White Oak Creek, opposite the McCall purchase, in L. Booker's Survey No. 901.
6. 1825-01-28 — After the legislature's school act of this date, the householders of the area divide it into eight school subdistricts, which the new township trustees replace on March 9, 1829 with six, five white and one colored.
7. 1828-12-28 — Scott Township holds its first official act as a corporation: Justice of the Peace Martin Gatts administers the oath of office to Dr. Enoch Ellsberry, James McCall and William Hilligoss as Trustees, Jacob Thomas as Treasurer, Francis Myers as Clerk, and Andrew Gibson as Constable.
8. 1828-12-15 — Dr. Enoch M. Ellsberry is appointed the township's first postmaster, at New Hope, by Postmaster General John McLean under President John Quincy Adams -- the first post office established in the township.
9. 1829-03-02 — The trustees of the new township divide it into seven road districts, and set the next annual election for April 6 at Daniel Holloway's house.
10. 1834-04-30 — The Post Office Department writes to Enoch Ellsberry, postmaster of New Hope, asking him for topographical information to place the office correctly on its maps.
11. 1835 — Alexander Hanna and James Ross are said to build a mill on the site of the later mill at Wahlsburg; Wahlsburg itself is granted a post office about 1879.
12. 1835 — The township treasurer's receipts for the year total $67.45 against expenditures of $70.20, and trustees are paid $2.25 and $1.50 for their service.
13. 1850 — A revival at New Hope brings 140 accessions to the church; services meet in Temperance Hall from 1849, and the brick church on the commons is built in 1851 at a cost of about $2,000.
14. 1855-07-18 — White Oak Lodge No. 292, I.O.O.F., is instituted at New Hope by Grand Master Thomas J. McLain with five charter members.
15. 1860 — Tobacco becomes the staple crop of the township.
16. 1876 — Tobacco raised by Henry Kimball, Sr., sold to Robert Young, tobacco merchant of Higginsport, wins the first award at the Centennial exposition.
17. 1880 — Scott's schools cost an average of $2,228.96 a year over the ten years from 1870, including two new buildings.
18. 2020 — The census counts 1,330 people in Scott Township.

Stories

A Revolutionary soldier who nearly shot Anthony Wayne

Lieut. Joshua Davidson, who built a cabin on the west bank of White Oak Creek in 1805, had served through the full seven years of the Revolutionary War: he crossed the frozen Delaware to Trenton with bleeding feet, starved with Washington at Valley Forge, fought at Brandywine, and stood with Lafayette at Yorktown to see Cornwallis surrender. He later served under Anthony Wayne in the Indian campaigns, and one night, in a dispute over prisoners he was guarding, he raised a musket he had snatched from a soldier to shoot Wayne himself as the general approached with a drawn sword. He lived to age ninety, dying in 1844, and any mention of his wartime service was said to still rekindle the old man's martial fire.

A pioneer merchant's two shelves and a bolt of jeans

Thomas Myers, son of early settler Francis Myers, opened Scott Township's first store in his own log cabin: two shelves on pegs behind the only door, a bolt of jeans cloth and a few simple goods. His business motto was "take care of the cents, and let the dollars take care of themselves." Dissatisfied with small returns after a year, he moved his business to Levanna, then to Augusta, Kentucky, where within a quarter of a century he built a fortune of roughly a quarter of a million dollars.

Prize tobacco from White Oak Creek

Until about 1860 Scott Township farmers raised mostly corn, wheat and livestock, but tobacco then became the staple and a growing source of income. In 1876 a sample of the crop raised on the farm of Henry Kimball, Sr., which was sold to Robert Young, a tobacco merchant of Higginsport, took the first award at the Centennial exposition in Philadelphia. The 1883 county history names the principal growers as Henry Kimball, F. M. Stratton, John McCall, George W. Stratton, O. F. Dunn, John Samms, D. M. Brannen and Jefferson Fite. Their fields lay along White Oak Creek, where Robert Wardlow had bought his 300 acres in 1800 and Col. Henry Zumatt, a veteran of Indian fighting, had pitched his tent in 1801 and built the township's first mill in 1808. The same book records that township finances stayed small for decades: in 1835 the treasurer took in $67.45 and his own commission was 48 cents.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Georgetown Village51% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Tate-monroe Water Association26% of residentsOhio River valley aquifer (collector/vertical wells)
• Bethel Village12% of residentsOhio River valley aquifer (collector/vertical wells)
• Waynoka Regional Water and Sewer Dist3% of residentsLake Waynoka / Sycamore Run reservoirs
• Sardinia Village3% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Hamersville Village3% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Felicity Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Brown County Rural Water0% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Mount Orab Village0% of residentsSterling Run (reservoirs)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-18: county board of elections.

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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-05-26

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