Sprigg Township, Adams County

How Sprigg Township, Adams County began

Sprigg Township lies in the southwest corner of Adams County, bordering the Ohio River on the south and Brown County on the west, west of Manchester Township. It was organized in 1806 and named for Judge William Sprigg, one of the pioneer lawyers of Adams County and later a judge of the Ohio Supreme Court. Its first settlers came about 1795-96 to the Zane's Trace corridor, the Edgingtons and Leedoms near Bentonville and William Robinson's tavern near Bradyville. Bentonville (post office 1842) and Bradyville (1846) are its crossroads villages; Hopewell church, the Union Church of 1830 and the 1869-1883 Brittingham camp meeting were its religious centers.

Settled 1795-1796 (Roush and Pence families raised corn on the Lower Island in 1795; Isaac and George Edgington and William Leedom near Bentonville, 1796), incorporated 1806 (organized as a township), by Isaac and George Edgington, William Leedom, William Robinson, Michael Roush, Peter Pence and others.

Where the name comes from

Named for Judge William Sprigg, one of the pioneer lawyers of Adams County and afterwards a judge of the Ohio Supreme Court; the township was organized in 1806.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound or treaty site specific to Sprigg Township is documented in the sources consulted. Evans and Stivers's 1900 county history places the township on Zane's Trace, which entered it at the Tomlin farm and ran by Three Mile Creek to Bentonville, and mentions that hunters such as Ellis Palmer 'killed an Indian' in the 1790s, but gives no Native place names.

Timeline

1. 1795 — The Roush and Pence families, living at Manchester, raise a crop of corn on the Lower Island in the Ohio, near the future township.
2. 1796 — Isaac Edgington, George Edgington and William Leedom settle near Bentonville; Peter Connor and William Robinson settle near Bradyville; and the Roush, Pence, Bryan and Cook families make the 'Dutch Settlement' on Dutch Run.
3. 1797 — George Edgington is entertaining travelers at his house just south of Bentonville on Zane's Trace.
4. 1806 — Sprigg Township is organized and named for Judge William Sprigg.
5. c. 1810 — The log Hopewell church is built near the later Hopewell Cemetery, with Rev. Abbott Godard, Robert Dobbins and John Meek as pioneer preachers.
6. 1812 — Thomas Marshall and Charles Mitchell fight a duel in Sprigg Township; one recollection places it on Charleston Bar near Logan's Gap on the Ohio.
7. 1830 — Union Church near Bentonville is organized by 'New Light' preacher Rev. Alexander McClain, and a brick church is built the next year.
8. 1839 — Lemuel Glascock stabs his brother-in-law Nathan Bowman to death in Sprigg Township; Glascock is sentenced to life in the penitentiary but is pardoned after a few years.
9. 1842 — A post office named Bentonville opens and has operated ever since.
10. 1846 — A post office named Bradyville opens; it will run until 1904.
11. 1854 — The brick Union Church is replaced by a frame building on land deeded for 'love and affection' by Asa and Mary Leedom.
12. 1867 — Sanford Phillips is killed with an ax in Bentonville in broad daylight; Lydia Purdin is arrested for the murder and not convicted.
13. 1869 — Rev. T. S. Arthur organizes the Brittingham Camp Meeting; it meets at the Brittingham Camp Ground south of Bentonville until the last meeting in 1883.
14. 1878 — Union Church is incorporated under Ohio law.

Stories

Praying for Rain at Bentonville, 1869

In 1869 the Rev. T. S. Arthur of the Cincinnati Methodist Conference and his wife organized a camp meeting in the Wykoff grove west of Bentonville. The summer was so dry and the water so scarce that the directors wanted to postpone it. Arthur called the congregation together at the old Methodist church in Bentonville the Sunday before the opening and announced that he was going to pray for rain. Before the people could get home there came one of the greatest downpours in years. The meeting went ahead with great popularity, and Arthur was looked on as a worker of miracles. For thirteen more years it met at the Brittingham Camp Ground two miles south of Bentonville on the Maysville pike, drawing families from Manchester, Aberdeen, Ripley, Winchester and West Union to camp in temporary buildings for ten days or two weeks. The directors charged a gate fee, and when Col. Granville Moody, presiding that year, forbade collecting on Sunday, they simply moved the treasurer's office a hundred yards down the road and went on taking money within sound of his voice. The last meeting was held in 1883, and the grounds were sold to A. V. Hutson.

The Bull Pen at Hopewell

The first church in what is now Sprigg Township was the log Hopewell church, built about 1810 near the present Hopewell Cemetery and schoolhouse, with Revs. Abbott Godard, Robert Dobbins and John Meek as its pioneer preachers. In fine weather Meek would leave the building and preach to the crowd from a natural amphitheater in the grove nearby that an irreverent neighbor called the 'bull pen.' It held the greatest religious revivals of the pioneer period, and Evans and Stivers say it was still pointed out to passersby in 1900. The log church burned about 1840, a new building was put up and later moved a mile north to the crossroads, and after dissensions the building was sold for use as a barn. The cemetery at old Hopewell, still well kept in 1900, holds many of the county's pioneers.

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

Eight ~75-ft wells in the Ohio River sand-and-gravel aquifer, on the south side of US 52 just west of Wrightsville, east of Manchester; groundwater seeps slowly east to west, the same direction as the Ohio River. The water here

• Manchester Village74% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Adams County Regional Wd15% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• West Union Public Water System10% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Brown County Rural Water1% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 1 of 1 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

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.
• Basic Audit, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-08-18
• Basic Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-07-23

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