South Salem

How South Salem began

South Salem is a village in southern Buckskin Township in northwestern Ross County. It grew out of Salem Academy, a school founded in 1842 by Presbyterian minister Hugh Stewart Fullerton; landowner John Sample platted the village in 1846 to serve the academy's students and teachers. The village's Wikipedia article says the academy closed in 1907, while the academy's own article gives 1922. The academy building and, a short distance away, the last covered bridge standing in Ross County are both on the National Register.

Platted 1846, by John Sample.

Where the name comes from

The village was platted in 1846 to serve Salem Academy. The origin of the name South Salem is not recorded.

Before the town

The 1871 Pioneer Record of Ross County says that when Buckskin Township was first settled the Indians had a camp at 'Old Chillicothe (now Frankfort)' and raided settlers along the creek, stealing horses, and that the settlers found them drying deer skins in a hollow sycamore near the creek on what was later Daniel Cline's land; the Indians fled leaving the skins, which gave Buckskin Creek and Buckskin Township their name. The account gives no date or nation. The same book mentions pioneers who lost horses to Indians and who dashed through a party that surrounded them while trailing the thieves. No site, trail or earthwork specific to South Salem is recorded.

Timeline

1. 1807 — Buckskin Township is formed from parts of Paxton and Concord on August 10, with the first election at the house of John Robbins; the township takes its name from the hollow sycamore full of deerskins found when the whites drove out a party of Indians.
2. 1842 — Presbyterian minister Hugh Stewart Fullerton establishes Salem Academy in southwestern Ross County.
3. 1846 — Landowner John Sample plats South Salem to better serve the academy's students and teachers.
4. 1846 — A Mr. Douglas builds the first house in South Salem, in 1846 or 1847; Dr. Hamilton, who came from Pennsylvania to Ohio in 1839, builds his house in 1847 and becomes instrumental in building up the village and especially the Academy.
5. 1850 — The census counts 479 residents, the village's peak, falling to 318 by 1860.
6. 1871 — South Salem has about 300 inhabitants, two stores, three blacksmith shops, two wagon shops, two carpenter shops, four churches (two Methodist, one Presbyterian and one for Black congregants), a grist and saw mill, two schools (one white and one Black) and a cemetery; Levi Pricer is postmaster and both Rev. James Dickey and Hugh Fullerton served the village's Presbyterian church as pastor for twenty years.
7. 1873 — The South Salem (Buckskin) Covered Bridge is built, carrying Lower Twin Road over Buckskin Creek; abutments were built by Robert Matthews at $5.75 per perch.
8. 1880 — The census counts 299 residents.
9. 1900 — The census counts 264 residents; by 1910 it falls to 211.
10. 1907 — South Salem Academy closes, unable to compete with newer schools, according to the village's Wikipedia article; the academy's own article gives 1922.
11. 1950 — The census counts 206 residents, up from 185 in 1940.
12. 1975 — The South Salem Covered Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the last covered bridge standing in Ross County.
13. 1979 — The South Salem Academy building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, on February 23.
14. 2020 — The census counts 219 residents.

Stories

A village built to house a school

South Salem grew up around a school. Presbyterian minister Hugh Stewart Fullerton founded Salem Academy in 1842, and in 1846 landowner John Sample platted a village to serve the school's students and teachers. The academy is a two-story, five-bay cut-limestone building in the Federal style with a cupola at the center of the roof. Wikipedia's article on the village says it closed in 1907, while the academy's own article says 1922, after which the building was sold to the Buckskin Township Board of Education. The academy building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The last covered bridge in Ross County

In 1873, builders using a Smith truss design raised a wooden covered bridge across Buckskin Creek at Caldwell's Crossing to carry Lower Twin Road near South Salem; bids were let on June 25, 1873. It is an eight-panel Smith truss built by the Smith Bridge Company, with stone abutments built by Robert Matthews at $5.75 per perch and a metal roof. Wikipedia says all of Ross County's other covered bridges have been destroyed, leaving this one standing alone; it was listed on the National Register on March 4, 1975.

How Buckskin Creek got its name

South Salem sits on Buckskin Creek, in Buckskin Township, and the 1871 Pioneer Record of Ross County tells how both got their name. When the township was first settled, it says, the Indians had a camp at Old Chillicothe, now Frankfort, and made a raid among the white settlers along the creek, stealing horses and committing other depredations. The settlers searched for them and found them camped by the creek, on land later owned by Daniel Cline, where a very hollow sycamore stood with a large opening at the root. The Indians had hung their skins, mostly deer, in the hollow of the tree and built a fire under them to dry them. When the whites attacked, the Indians fled and left the skins behind, and from that circumstance, the account says, the creek took the name Buckskin, and afterward the township.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · historic-structures.com · ross.ohgenweb.org · archive.org

Every historic place in Ross County on the full map

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

• Ross County Water Co. Inc100% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)

Public schools (1)

Public libraries (1)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-03

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