Washington Township, Scioto County

How Washington Township, Scioto County began

Washington Township, organized in 1814 and named for George Washington, sits on the Ohio River southwest of Portsmouth and holds ground more historically significant than its quiet present suggests: Alexandria, the river-bottom settlement founded in 1796 and platted in 1799 that briefly served as Scioto County's temporary seat before repeated floods destroyed it, stood here, on or near a site local ghost-town records call Shannoah Town, describing Adena-era origins and Shawnee occupation into the 1750s. The 1797 Philip Moore Stone House, the township's one confirmed National Register listing, still stands south of the modern community of West Portsmouth. Today's township, much of it covered by the Shawnee State Forest it shares with Nile Township, had 5,214 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled 1796 (Alexandria), platted 1799 (Alexandria), incorporated 1814 (township organized).

Where the name comes from

Named for George Washington; it is one of forty-three Washington Townships in Ohio.

Before the town

A local ghost-towns record describes a site it calls Shannoah Town within Washington Township as a pre-colonial settlement with Adena-culture origins, occupied by Shawnee until a devastating flood around 1758 forced its abandonment — a description that closely matches Lower Shawneetown, the major Shawnee-led town documented at the mouth of the Scioto whose residents left in November 1758. "Shannoah" appears to be a period variant of "Shawnee"/"Sonnioto," and the two are very likely the same site, or part of the same riverside settlement complex, rather than independently confirmed distinct places; we found no primary source (an NRHP form, Ohio History Central, or a period map) to settle the question, and the standard Wikipedia account of Lower Shawneetown places it nearer modern Portsmouth rather than explicitly in Washington Township. This remains unresolved, not a settled fact.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Adena culture.

• Shannoah Town (probable Lower Shawneetown) (village) — Washington Township, Scioto County, exact site not confirmed, Adena-era origins; Shawnee occupation into the 1750s (ohioghosttowns.wordpress.com)

Timeline

1. 1787 — Larkin Smith enters Survey No. 475 on August 3, the first land entered in the township, surveyed November 21; the same day Alexander Parker locates Survey No. 508, 600 acres, for his brother Col. Thomas Parker of Frederick County, Virginia, the site of Alexandria.
2. 1796 — Alexandria is founded at the Scioto-Ohio confluence area, the first organized settlement in what becomes Washington Township.
3. 1797 — The Philip Moore Stone House is built south of the future West Portsmouth; it is later listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
4. 1799 — Alexandria is formally platted and serves for a time as Scioto County's temporary seat before repeated flooding destroys it.
5. 1799 — B. Langham certifies the plat of Alexandria on June 3, 88 lots and 35 outlots laid out by order of Col. Parker, with Water, Second to Sixth and Scioto, Thomas, Middle and South streets; it is recorded June 4. Judge John Collins, William Russell and others are its first inhabitants.
6. 1805 — A post office operates at Alexandria; it closes in 1808 as the settlement declines.
7. 1805 — The post office at Alexandria is established with William Russell as postmaster; the first court and the first county seat had been there, and the office is abandoned three years later when one opens at Portsmouth.
8. 1806 — Fletcher's dwelling and blacksmith shop at Alexandria burns; Stephen Smith later completes a stone house there in 1815, at the town's height.
9. 1814 — Washington Township is formally organized and named for George Washington.
10. 1814 — A petition from parts of Nile and Union is granted in August and the township is created and ordered to be called Washington; Stephen Carey had built one of the county's first grist mills on Carey's Run.
11. 1834 — The Crain brothers, Roswell and Ora, plat the community of Tempevale, which fades out before 1900.
12. 1842 — On December 6 land west of the new mouth of the Scioto, cut off by the Ohio canal's relocation of the river mouth, is taken from Wayne and added to Washington.
13. 1901 — The township has 1,269 people on 14,235 acres, with real estate valued at $223,460 and personal property at $77,234.

Stories

The county seat that washed away

Before Portsmouth, there was Alexandria: founded in 1796 and formally platted in 1799 in what is now Washington Township, close to the point where the Scioto meets the Ohio. For a time it served as Scioto County's temporary seat of government, a natural choice given its riverfront position — the same position that doomed it. Flood after flood struck the low-lying site until it was abandoned outright; a post office that operated there from 1805 to 1808 marks close to the end of its recorded life. Henry Massie's 1803 platting of Portsmouth on higher ground nearby was a direct response to exactly this vulnerability, and it was Portsmouth, not Alexandria, that endured as county seat. Local ghost-town records place the older Shawnee town sometimes called Shannoah Town on or very near the same ground — meaning American settlers may have picked, twice, the same river bend that a Native town had already found and eventually lost to the same water.

The Alexandria that the floods took

Alexandria was one of the first three settlements in the county, planted within months of the French Grant and the mouth of the Little Scioto. Col. Thomas Parker of Virginia had its 600 acres surveyed in 1787; the plat of 88 lots and 35 outlots was filed on June 4, 1799. It held the first court, the first county seat and, in 1805, the first post office, with William Russell as postmaster, and Judge John Collins entertained travelers. Patrick Timmonds kept a hotel under a sign with a green tree painted on it. After Portsmouth was laid out, business moved there, the post office was abandoned in 1808, and the 'west side' remained a flood-prone bottomland that for several weeks each winter and spring was cut off from Portsmouth by a sheet of water two to three miles wide and twenty to thirty feet deep. It is said that Indians had partly cleared and cultivated the town site in corn before Alexandria was laid out.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · ohioghosttowns.wordpress.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org

Every historic place in Scioto County on the full map

Ohio River, drawn at the municipal river water intake on the right descending bank near Mile 350.7 The water here

• Portsmouth City62% of residentsOhio River
• Northwest Regional Water District17% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (wells near SR 348)
• Scioto Water Inc.-careys Run9% of residentsOhio River
• Scioto Water Inc.-hygean Run4% of residentsOhio River
• Scioto Water Inc.-oakwood3% of residentsOhio River
• Scioto Water Inc.-slab Run2% of residentsOhio River
• Scioto Water Inc. - Pond Run1% of residentsOhio River
• Scioto Water Inc - Stony Run1% of residentsOhio River

Community health centers (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

Bridges rated poor (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 3 of 3 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-09-08

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