Silvercreek Township, Greene County

How Silvercreek Township, Greene County began

Silvercreek Township was organized on March 4, 1811, one of the original divisions carved out of Greene County's eastern reaches, and originally reached to the southeastern corner of the county before Jefferson Township split off in 1858. Most of the village of Jamestown, laid out in 1815 or 1816 on land held by Thomas Browder and Martin Mendenhall, sits in the township's northwest corner. Settlers came heavily from Carolina and Virginia to farm the township's broad, level, black-loam plain, one of the most prized soils in the county. Today it remains a farming township of about 3,700 people organized around Jamestown.

Incorporated March 4, 1811.

Where the name comes from

Named for Silver Creek, one of the streams draining the township; sources checked did not explain why the creek itself was so named.

Before the town

No site-specific Native American history for Silvercreek Township was found in the sources checked; the 1908 county history's township chapter and the township's Wikipedia article are both silent on it. Dills (1881) adds that when the old Noah Strong house site was excavated, numerous Indian skeletons were reported, so that a burying-ground there was generally believed; that Shawnee families camped nearby in 1812-1814, among them an old chief, Chieske, who lived with the Strongs and taught young Sylvester Strong the language; and that the Moormans in 1809 followed an Indian trail from the Ohio River through Highland County by way of Lexington, Reeceville and Bowersville to Jamestown.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Indian trail through Bowersville to Jamestown (trail) — from the Ohio River through Highland County, by Lexington, Reeceville, Bowersville and Jamestown, followed by settlers in 1809 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1806 — Martin Mendenhall, Thomas Moorman, Noah Strong and Thomas Browder are the first to make homes in what becomes Silver Creek Township, coming from Virginia and North Carolina.
2. 1807 — Noah Strong, a Vermonter, settles with eight children on a farm half a mile east of Jamestown, on land he bought by deed in 1798; John Sheley, a neighbor of George Washington in Virginia, arrives the same year.
3. 1809 — The family of Thomas Moorman Sr. settles a mile east of Jamestown after two years in Highland County, following an Indian trail from the Ohio River.
4. 1810 — John Miller and William Sterritt start a tan-yard in what becomes Jamestown, five years before the town is surveyed.
5. 1811 — Silvercreek Township is organized, one of the county's original townships along with Mad River, Beavercreek and Sugarcreek.
6. 1811 — Silvercreek Township is organized; Noah Strong's log house of this year is still standing as a barn in 1881.
7. 1812 — The Society of Friends is organized by Thomas P. Mooreman and others, meeting at his father's house.
8. 1812 to 1814 — Friendly Shawnee families camp in the neighborhood and trade venison hams for corn dodgers with the Strong family.
9. 1816 — Jamestown, in the township's northwest corner, is laid out on land owned by Thomas Browder and Martin Mendenhall; the 1908 county history says 1816 and Dills (1881) says it was surveyed in 1815 by Thomas P. Mooreman and a Mr. Thomas.
10. 1825 — There are four schools in the township, one of them the old brick school where the old cemetery stands.
11. 1835 to 1840 — Merrick and McBride build a steam-powered saw-mill and distillery, the first manufacturing works in the township to use steam; it later becomes a flouring mill.
12. 1837 — A division in the Caesar's Creek Baptist Church, the oldest organized church in the county, sends about twenty members under the Rev. George Reeves to form a second congregation.
13. 1858 — Jefferson Township is organized out of Silvercreek Township's southeastern corner, shrinking Silvercreek to roughly its present bounds.
14. 1875 — A narrow-gauge railroad is built from Dayton on the old grade through Jamestown to the southern Ohio coal fields, Silver Creek having subscribed $10,000 toward it.
15. 1880 — The township has six school buildings, a school-age population of 360 in 1870, and a Quaker meeting-house of 1873 east of Jamestown.
16. 1884 — A spring cyclone destroys about a third of Jamestown.
17. 2020 — The census counts 3,732 people in Silvercreek Township.

Stories

Black loam and a woolcarding mill

The 1908 county history describes Silvercreek Township's land in blunt, admiring terms: a broad, level plain of deep, rich, black loam that commanded some of the highest farmland prices in the county. Most of the farmers and business owners who settled it came from Carolina and Virginia. Early industry grew up around that farmland rather than around any single town: James Hodges ran a woolcarding mill, and Merrick & McBride combined a still and a grist mill under one roof, a common pairing on the Ohio frontier where farmers turned surplus grain into both flour and whiskey. Later the township added grain elevators, a flouring mill, a lumberyard, a cement block factory and a tile mill, machinery of a maturing farm economy rather than a new one.

Chieske and the Strong family

Noah Strong, born in Vermont, bought a hundred acres east of Jamestown in 1798 but did not settle on them until 1807, when he came with eight children. In 1811 he put up a story-and-a-half log house that was still standing, weather-boarded and used as a barn, when the county history was written; the owner told the author it would stand until time took it. The author adds that when the ground by the house was excavated, many Indian skeletons were turned up, and people believed a burying-ground had been there. In 1812, 1813 and 1814 friendly Shawnee camped in the neighborhood, and Sylvester Strong and others traded corn dodgers for venison hams. An old chief, Chieske, too old to be a warrior, lived with the Strongs and taught Sylvester the Shawnee language.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Jamestown Village99% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Western Water Company1% of residentsLittle Miami River valley wells (51%) plus Cincinnati Ohio River water (49%)

Nursing homes (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2017: 3 of 3 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 2025-12-30

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