Washington Township, Hocking County

How Washington Township, Hocking County began

Washington Township sits in southern Hocking County, bordering Vinton County to the south, and had 1,131 residents at the 2020 census across 37.35 square miles. The 1883 county history calls it a 'full-sized congressional township, perfectly formed,' six miles square, named for Washington. It was organized June 5, 1826 from Falls Township; settlers began arriving about 1822, among them a number of German families in the north. Its two small communities are Ewing (post office October 1850) and Ilesboro (laid out 1835 by Henry Iles). Population grew from 1,124 in 1840 to 1,640 in 1850 and then fell steadily to 1,268 in 1880 as mineral development drew people elsewhere. No National Register sites are listed in the township.

Settled c. 1822, platted Ilesboro 1835 (Henry Iles), incorporated June 5, 1826 (organized from Falls Township; township 13, range 17), by Adam Engle, Frederic Higley, Henry Iles, William Lashley and others.

Where the name comes from

The 1883 county history says Hocking County commemorates the name of Washington, 'the immortal father of our country,' in a full-sized congressional township six miles square; it is one of forty-three Washington Townships in Ohio.

Before the town

No site-specific Native American history for Washington Township was found in the sources checked; the 1883 Hocking Valley history, which covers the township's settlers, churches and hamlets in detail, mentions none. Hocking County as a whole carries Delaware (Lenape) linguistic heritage in the name of the Hocking River itself, and the broader Hocking Hills region (mainly to the north and east of this township) has the county's best-documented rock-shelter and mound sites. The 1795 Treaty of Greenville cession covers the whole county.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware), Adena culture.

Timeline

1. 1818 — Hocking County, containing Washington Township, is organized from parts of Athens, Fairfield, and Ross counties.
2. c. 1822 — Settlements begin in the township; over the next ten years many families come, among them a number of German families in the north. Early settlers named in the 1883 history include Adam Engle, Frederic Higley, Henry Iles, William Lashley, Jonathan Kimbal, Samuel Johnson, George Garrett and Wells Garrett.
3. 1826-06-05 — Washington Township is organized, being township 13 of range 17 taken off of Falls Township.
4. 1829 — Jacob Reddick, a Maryland blacksmith, settles in the township, working his trade eight or ten years and then farming; he dies in 1869.
5. 1832 — The early settlers cut a road through the woods from Uriah Linton's place near the township center to the McArthur road; at the junction New Mount Pleasant grows up, with a tannery and then a store.
6. 1835 — Henry Iles lays out Ilesboro into town lots; John Ramsey, William Vanhorn and James K. Johnson are among the first to buy lots.
7. 1840 — The census counts 1,124 people in the township.
8. c. 1842 — A Methodist Episcopal society is founded at Ilesboro by traveling preachers John R. Prase and Wesley Tibbets; its first meeting house, perhaps the first in the township, is built in 1845. A German Lutheran church at Ewing is established in 1842 or 1843 and its church built about 1845.
9. 1850 — The census counts 1,640 people. The overland mail route from Logan to McArthur is established, running the length of the township through Ilesboro and New Mount Pleasant and past the site of Ewing.
10. 1850-10 — The Ewing post office is established at Warren Chapman's store, with Chapman as postmaster; a tannery is the only other enterprise at the spot.
11. 1857 — The first surviving township records show trustees M. B. Cherry, R. L. Allard and Jacob Nelson, clerk J. H. M. Houston and treasurer John Conaway.
12. 1860 — The census counts 1,629; it is 1,534 in 1870 and 1,268 in 1880, a slow but steady fall.
13. 1877 — A new frame Methodist church is built at Ilesboro and the old Union church on section 11 is torn down.
14. 1882 — The township's assessed valuation is $282,655 in real estate and $94,867 in personal property; it supports ten schools, with a township school tax of $2,000.87.
15. 2020 — Township population is recorded as 1,131 at the U.S. Census.

Stories

A mail route, a tannery and a store

In 1850, the 1883 county history says, 'the very important event' of establishing the overland mail route from Logan to McArthur was completed, and mail began to be carried regularly along a line that ran the full length of Washington Township, through the hamlets of Ilesboro and New Mount Pleasant and past a spot where only a tannery stood. In October of that year a post office was opened there in Warren Chapman's store, Chapman as postmaster. The history thought the post office the chief cause of the community's existence: a town was later laid out, fifty or sixty people lived at Ewing for most of its history, and it gathered a blacksmith shop, a cabinet shop, a cooper shop and a German Lutheran church that had been founded in 1842 or 1843. A store was kept at Ewing for most of its life, but by 1883 it had none.

The township that went backward

Washington Township had 1,124 people in 1840, and the next ten years saw a very rapid increase to 1,640. After that, the 1883 history records the township's 'remarkable experience of going backward with a slow but steady step': 1,629 in 1860, 1,534 in 1870 and 1,268 in 1880. The authors blamed not a decline in the township's attractions but the great development of minerals in surrounding localities, which drew inhabitants away. The township itself had little to offer miners: its soil was neither remarkably good nor poor, and its mineral wealth, if any, was undiscovered. Some iron ore from the southern hills had been hauled by wagon to the Logan and Union furnaces, and a thin coal layer was stripped for local use. Settlers who stayed raised cattle, wool, wheat and corn.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Logan, City Of100% of residentsGroundwater wells (8 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public EV charging (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2018: 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-07

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