Stockport

How Stockport began

Stockport sits on the Muskingum River in Windsor Township and grew up around a milling site; Nathan Sidwell founded the village, originally called Windsor, in 1843. Postmaster Samuel Beswick, whose family had been born in Stockport, England, renamed it after his English hometown once it was clear Ohio already had a Windsor. The Beswick brothers built the first mill in 1842, and a line of successor mills followed on the same site; the current Stockport Mill, built starting in 1906, is the last surviving mill on the river. Population stood at 483 at the 2020 census.

Where the name comes from

Originally called Windsor. Renamed Stockport because Ohio already had a Windsor and because postmaster Samuel Beswick and his brothers were born in Stockport, England.

Before the town

The Big Bottom massacre of January 2, 1791 took place on the Muskingum River floodplain a short distance from present-day Stockport, when a party of Lenape (Delaware) and Wyandot warriors attacked a new settlement of squatters who held no title to the land; between twelve and fourteen people were killed, by varying accounts. The site is administratively in Windsor Township, the same township as the village of Stockport, but it is not part of the village plat itself; see the Windsor Township unit for the site record and photographs. The attack followed years of dispute over the 1789 Treaty of Fort Harmar, which Native leaders considered unrepresentative, and helped touch off the Northwest Indian War that ended with the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Wyandot.

• Big Bottom Massacre Site (battle) — Windsor Township, near Stockport, on the Muskingum River floodplain, January 2, 1791 (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1842 — Samuel and William Beswick build the first mill on the site; it burns after a few years of operation.
2. 1843 — Nathan Sidwell founds the village, renamed Stockport for postmaster Samuel Beswick's English hometown.
3. 1849 — A second mill is built on the site; it operates for 54 years before burning down around 2 a.m. on July 1, 1903.
4. 1906 — The Dover Brothers begin construction of the current Stockport Mill.
5. 1913 — The great Ohio flood sweeps away other mills along the Muskingum River but leaves the Stockport Mill standing.
6. 1838 — A post office is established at Stockport.

Stories

A mill built plenty sturdy

Stockport's milling site on the Muskingum River burned through two mills before the one standing today. Samuel and William Beswick's first mill, raised in 1842, lasted only a few years before fire took it. A second mill went up in 1849 and ran for 54 years, grinding grain for farmers up and down the valley, until it too burned to the ground around two in the morning on July 1, 1903. The Dover Brothers began building the current mill in 1906, and when the catastrophic flood of 1913 swept away other mills along the Muskingum, the new Stockport Mill was built sturdy enough to survive. It stands today as the last mill on the river, now operating as an inn.

A name borrowed from England

The settlement on this bend of the Muskingum was originally called Windsor, but Ohio already had a Windsor, so the post office needed a new name. Postmaster Samuel Beswick and his brothers had been born in Stockport, England, and when Nathan Sidwell founded the village in earnest in 1843, the English mill town's name traveled with the family across the ocean to the Muskingum.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · sites.google.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Stockport Village93% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Morgan Meigsville - West Malta4% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Chesterhill Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 5 of 5 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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-07-09
• Financial Audit, 2021 to 2022, released 2025-07-10

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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