Wheeling Township, Guernsey County

How Wheeling Township, Guernsey County began

Wheeling Township, in the northwestern corner of Guernsey County, was organized in September 1810 with the township's first officers elected at a meeting hosted by settler William Gibson. James Booth, one of the area's largest landowners at his peak with more than 700 acres, built the Booth Homestead there beginning in 1843; the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The village of Guernsey was laid out within the township in 1872. The township remains rural, with 680 residents as of the 2020 census.

Incorporated September 1810, by Organizational meeting hosted by settler William Gibson.

Where the name comes from

Not found in sources checked; Wheeling Township likely takes its name from Wheeling, in present West Virginia, a common reference point for pioneers who traveled Zane's Trace or the Ohio River route west, but no specific naming account was located. It is one of two Wheeling Townships in Ohio, the other in Belmont County.

Before the town

No site-specific Native American history for Wheeling Township was found in the sources checked. Sarchet (1911) adds that Native families lived in rude huts and fished and hunted along the streams of the township until about 1812, and that Robert Atkinson, the first settler, was helped by the settler Bird and some Indians to bury his wife. He also prints an 1883 newspaper description of a rock on a high hill near the county road from Guernsey to Bridgeville, shaped like an immense haystack about forty feet high, with sides carved with 'hieroglyphics' that the writer thought a study for students of aboriginal history; whether the marks are Native was not checked.

• Carved rock near Bridgeville (other) — a high hill near the county road from Guernsey to Bridgeville, Wheeling Township, undetermined; described in an 1883 newspaper (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1806 — William Gibson settles on Wills Creek, and Philip Shoff is a resident by 1807.
2. 1810 — Wheeling Township was organized in September; its first officers were elected at a meeting hosted by settler William Gibson.
3. 1810 — Three Virginia families, those of Paul Dewitt, John Hodge and Abraham Furney, settle in the township.
4. c. 1812 — The Native families who had lived in rude huts and fished and hunted along the streams leave the township.
5. 1815 — Government land in the township can no longer be taken up in less than quarter-sections.
6. 1820 — The first church in the township, a Baptist congregation, is organized near Bridgeville.
7. 1843 — James Booth, then eighteen, arranged construction of the house that became known as the Booth Homestead.
8. 1872 — The village of Guernsey was laid out within the township on November 7 by John Fordyce, J. W. Robins and Madison D. Robins.
9. 1883-03-08 — The Jeffersonian describes a forty-foot rock on a hill near the road from Guernsey to Bridgeville, carved on its sides with 'hieroglyphics.'
10. 1910 — Wheeling Township, seven and a half miles long and about thirty-three sections, has two station villages on the Pennsylvania railroad, Bird's Run (the Bridgeville post office) and Guernsey.
11. 1979 — The Booth Homestead was added to the National Register of Historic Places, on September 6.
12. 2020 — The census counts 680 people in Wheeling Township.

Stories

The Booth Homestead

James Booth was still a teenager, eighteen years old, when he arranged in 1843 for the construction of the house on his family's land in Wheeling Township that would carry his name into the next century. Booth went on to become one of Guernsey County's largest landowners, holding more than 700 acres at his peak. His L-shaped house mixed traditional building forms with the Greek Revival style then in fashion, its five-bay facade centered on a main entrance. The Booth Homestead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 6, 1979, one of only two verifiable NRHP sites actually located within Wheeling Township — unlike several other listings that share the township's ZIP codes but sit elsewhere in the county.

The settler named Bird

The first settler of Wheeling Township, Robert Atkinson, took up section 21, found that someone from Belmont County had entered it first, and moved across Wills Creek to another part of the section. His only neighbor, eight miles away in what is now Tuscarawas County, was a man named Bird, who lived at the big spring where John Booth later settled, in a shanty beside a small clearing. When Atkinson's wife died, Bird and some local Indians helped him bury her. Atkinson went back to Virginia for a new wife and left Bird to look after his property. While he was gone, Bird, who had neither family nor principle, the county history says, loaded Atkinson's household goods into a boat and went down the stream into the Muskingum, never seen again. The creek was named Bird's Run after him.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Newcomerstown Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Bridges rated poor (6)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 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.
• Basic Audit, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-23

Cite this page