Upper Township, Lawrence County

How Upper Township, Lawrence County began

Upper Township occupies southwestern Lawrence County along the Ohio River, its shoreline taken up for most of its length by the independent city of Ironton, the county seat, with the village of Coal Grove upstream within its bounds. The Ohio Iron and Coal Company's 1849 charter named a point in Upper Township as the start of the Iron Railroad, and the company laid out Ironton there the same year; Ironton took the county seat from Burlington in 1851-52. Upper's census count grew from 1,181 in 1840 to 16,286 in 1910, and it remains the county's most populous township (14,451 in 2020). It is the only Upper Township in Ohio.

Platted 1849 (Ironton laid out within the township), incorporated by 1840 (first appears in the county's 1840 census; organization date not found), by Ohio Iron and Coal Company (Ironton).

Where the name comes from

No source found records the specific reasoning behind the township's name; it is the only Upper Township statewide in Ohio.

Before the town

No source found records a Native village, mound, trail, or treaty event specific to Upper Township. The township lies within the Ohio River lands ceded at the 1795 Treaty of Greenville; the county's broader Native history -- Shawnee and Mingo presence in the lower Ohio Valley, and the absence of a documented named village or mound inside the county -- is covered at the county level.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1816-12-20 — Lawrence County is created by the legislative act of December 20, 1816, with Burlington as its first seat; Upper Township lies at the county's southwestern end.
2. 1840 — Upper Township has 1,181 people in the federal census.
3. 1849-03-17 — The Ohio Iron and Coal Company receives its charter, whose stated first purpose is to build a railroad 'from a point in Upper township, on the Ohio river, north to a southern line of Jackson county'; the company goes on to lay out Ironton on that same Upper Township riverfront later that year.
4. 1849-05-03 — The company's directors resolve that John Campbell, C. Briggs and W. D. Kelley lay out a town on the company's land above the mouth of Storms Creek, to be called Ironton; the first sale of lots follows in June 1849.
5. 1850 — The township counts 2,494 people (it still included Hamilton Township) and holds two post offices on the county's list: Coal Grove and Ironton.
6. 1851 — Voters choose to move the county seat from Burlington to Ironton; in 1852 the new courthouse is built on the public square the Ohio Iron and Coal Company donated.
7. 1856 — The assessor rates Upper's 14,123 acres at $172,655 in land value, the third highest of the county's townships; Ironton adds $122,526 for 367 acres.
8. 1860 — The census count is 4,924, by far the largest in the county.
9. 1884-02 — The Ohio River flood of February 1884 inundates half of Ironton; the water rises to 81 inches above the 1883 high-water mark by February 12 and the damage to Ironton and vicinity is estimated at nearly $200,000.
10. 1888-01 — The Ironton and Petersburg Street Railway obtains its right of way through the city; the first car runs from West Ironton to Petersburg that July, and by July 1891 the line reaches from Hanging Rock to Petersburg opposite Ashland, Kentucky.
11. 1890 — The census count is 13,937 (Ironton 10,939; Coal Grove village 506); it is 14,890 in 1900.
12. 1910 — The census count is 16,286, of which Ironton city holds 13,147 and Coal Grove village 1,759.
13. 1913-03 — The March 1913 flood, which damaged West Ironton, Hanging Rock, Coal Grove and other river towns, is put in the 1916 county history at about $1,000,000 in damage (the scanned figure is hard to read) and a crest higher than that of 1884.
14. 1914 — The assessor values Upper Township at $769,768, with the Ironton school district adding $240,496 and Coal Grove corporation $1,107,489.
15. 2020 — The township's population is recorded at 14,451 across 24.3 square miles of land in the decennial census.

Stories

A county seat bought by subscription

The Ohio Iron and Coal Company laid out Ironton in 1849 and then went after the county seat. John Campbell, George N. Kemp and William Lambert, three of the town's most active capitalists, circulated a petition to move the seat of justice from Burlington, arguing that Ironton was nearer the county's center and that nine of the thirteen townships were as near to it as to Burlington. About a hundred citizens signed a subscription paper pledging cash or work such as brick, carpentry, painting and hauling; the pledges came to $1,200 for a courthouse and $400 for moving the jail, and the company itself headed the list of cash givers. The promised building was a two-story brick courthouse of about seventy by forty-five feet with pilasters, to stand on a public square the company would donate and be finished in 1852. Voters approved the removal in 1851 and the courthouse went up the next year on that square. The author of the 1916 county history examined the original subscription paper, kept in a scrapbook made by Charles Campbell, the founder's son.

The flood of February 1884

The Ohio had been rising since February 6, 1884, gaining two inches an hour, and by Saturday the 9th it stood above the mark of 1883. By the 11th half of Ironton was under water, from one to eight feet deep in West Ironton and the business district. The Register described families retreating to second stories, the courthouse and engine houses filled with refugees, a soup house opened for the homeless, and skiffs plying Third Street. The Sheridan House's door-sill was reached on Saturday afternoon and by Sunday the river was at the show windows on Second Street, with two feet of water in the Second National Bank. By Tuesday the 12th the water was eighty-one inches above the 1883 mark and then began to fall. The Belfont mill and the merchants of Ironton and the Means, Kyle and Company works at Hanging Rock were heavy losers, and the loss to Ironton and vicinity was put at nearly $200,000.

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

Ohio River surface water, treated at the Ironton Water Treatment Plant (built 1993, approved capacity 4 million gallons per day, about 1.3 MGD produced). The foot-of-Vernon-Street siting describes the original 1872 waterworks, not the current intake location. The water here

• Ironton63% of residentsOhio River
• Hecla Water Association22% of residentsOhio River
• Coal Grove15% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Scioto Water Inc.-sugar Camp1% of residentsGroundwater wells (6 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Superfund sites (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 2 of 2 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 2025-05-08

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