Sunfish Township, Pike County

How Sunfish Township, Pike County began

Sunfish Township, the only township of that name in Ohio, lies in southwestern Pike County, west of the Scioto, in a very hilly, heavily timbered country. Before 1798 the area belonged to a larger Ross County township, Paxton; when Pike County was organized in 1815 Sunfish was one of its first townships, though Sunfish Creek itself barely touches its northeastern corner. Settlers, mostly from Virginia, with some from North Carolina and Pennsylvania, came about 1817-18 up the Chenoweth Fork of the creek. By the 1884 county history it had the lowest land valuation in the county, and post offices at Elm Grove (1871) and Poplar Grove (1872). The township had 1,115 residents in 2020.

Settled c. 1817-18 (main settlement); before 1812 or 1871, sources conflict (Elm Grove).

Where the name comes from

Not established from the sources consulted; the township is named for Sunfish Creek, though the creek itself barely touches its northeastern corner, most of the watercourses within the township being named branches such as the Chenoweth Fork.

Before the town

No village, mound, trail or encounter is recorded for Sunfish Township in the sources read. What the record supports is the land's status: Pike County lies south and east of the Greenville line, and the Treaty of Greenville (signed August 3, 1795) ceded roughly two-thirds of Ohio to the United States. The first settlers in this part of the county came within a few years after it, in 1796 and later. The township lies west of the Scioto River, in the part of Pike County that belonged to the Virginia Military District, which Virginia reserved in 1784 to pay its Revolutionary War veterans and which was surveyed by metes and bounds. The township is mostly hills and small valleys, and the 1884 county history records no earthwork or village there; the Pike State Forest area is not tied to any site here by a source read.

Timeline

1. before 1798 — The area later organized as Sunfish Township is part of Paxton Township, a division formed by the Ross County commissioners.
2. 1815 — When Pike County is organized, Sunfish becomes one of its first townships (with Pee Pee, Jackson, Beaver, Mifflin, Seal and the since-dropped Washington).
3. c. 1817-18 — Settlers, mostly from Virginia with some from North Carolina and Pennsylvania, begin arriving along the Chenoweth Fork of Sunfish Creek and in the small valleys; early names include Samuel Mustard, James and William Henry, Fenton Legg, William G. Humphrey, John Shanks and Peter Cartwright.
4. 1838 — The township officers are trustees Samuel Henry, James Henry and Samuel Mustard, treasurer Christopher Beekman, clerk Samuel Mustard and justice of the peace Samuel Henry.
5. 1840 — The township has 325 residents; it has 371 in 1850 and 495 in 1860.
6. June 1853 — The line between Sunfish and Newton townships is changed (the date in the county chapter); the Sunfish chapter describes a trade that took about five-eighths of a mile from Newton and added it to Sunfish.
7. 1867 — The Mount Zion Christian Union Church is organized July 18 by Rev. Uriah Milburn and a church is built the same year.
8. 1871 — A post office named Elm Grove is established on the Chenoweth Fork, with Enoch Steadman as its only postmaster for years.
9. 1872 — The Poplar Grove post office is established in May in the northwest, with Sampson Shanks as first postmaster.
10. 1878 — White Oak Chapel Christian Church is organized December 25 by Winfield S. Beekman and Allen Smalley, with a log church built the same year in the northwest.
11. 1879 — The Mead School Christian Union class is organized on August 17 by Rev. John Treat with thirty-five members.
12. 1880 — A Christian church is organized at Victory School-house by Rev. William J. Allison with about thirty members; the township has 976 residents, up from 628 in 1870.
13. 1881 — Rev. William J. Allison organizes a second class at Marvin School-house.
14. 1882 — The township's 20,109 acres are assessed at only $69,627, about $3.40 an acre, the smallest land valuation in the county.
15. 2020 — The census counts 1,115 residents in the township.

Stories

A hilly township with a creek that is not its own

Sunfish Township takes its name from Sunfish Creek, but the 1884 county history is quick to note that the creek 'does not lie or flow through or within its limits,' barely touching the northeastern corner. The only named streams inside the township are the Chenoweth Branch, or fork, of Sunfish Creek and Carter's Run. The township is very hilly, in the historian's words rough and broken, with crests too thin for crops, and it came near being a triangle in shape, 31.5 square miles. Its settlers of 1817-18 chose the small valleys of the Chenoweth Fork, pocket valleys 'not exactly ravines' that made some of the best corn and grass land. The hills carried a vast quantity of oak, hickory and locust timber, but the land was valued at only about $3.40 an acre, the lowest in the county, and its business in 1883 was one store, at Elm Grove, plus the post office at Poplar Grove.

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

Groundwater wells (3 wells) The water here

• Piketon Village58% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Pike Water, Inc.-plant35% of residentsTeays Valley Buried Valley Aquifer (wells near Jasper)
• Peebles Public Water System4% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Adams County Regional Wd2% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Dawsons Mobile Home Park1% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 1 of 1 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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-05

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