Elizabeth Township Was the Largest Lawrence County, Ohio Townships
I.T. October 1, 1967
Submitted by Lorna Marks
In 1850 Elizabeth Township was the largest in Lawrence County, with a population of 2,529.
The area, located in west-central Lawrence County against the Scioto County border, was a great center for the iron industry, with seven active iron furnaces within its boundaries.
In 1828 Robert HAMILTON and Andrew ELLISON, two iron masters of the Hanging Rock iron region, erected the Pine Grove furnace and established a business that endured longer than any other industry in Lawrence County.
Mr. HAMILTON was listed in the ledger of the 1850 census as “Robert HAMILTON, born in Pennsylvania, and owned property evaluated worth $80,000.” This made him “the richest man in Elizabeth Township.”
Mr. HAMILTON, after erecting the Hecla furnace east of Ironton, established the Christian ideals by which he lived in the iron industry.
He was determined to bring religion into the daily lives of the home community by closing his furnaces on the Sabbath.
This experiment, so far as known, had never been tried in America’s iron industry before November 20, 1844, when Mr. HAMILTON closed down his furnace.
Mr. HAMILTON married Nancy ELLISON, an aunt of Mrs. John CAMPBELL, wife of the founder and leading capitalist of Ironton, which was “the beginning of his success and fortune.”
Other furnaces offering jobs to the 1,359 males in the township were Centre, Vesuvius, Old Union, Empire, Lawrence, and Etna.
Like several other Lawrence County townships, Elizabeth Township has been bypassed by the population explosion. The 1960 census revealed 2,130 Elizabeth residents, 399 persons less than in 1850. This shift in population could be attributed to the changeover from an industrial area to a rural farming area with the advent of the closing of the iron blast furnaces.
The 1850 census recorded most of the Elizabeth residents were born in Ohio, with 471 from Germany, 86 from Ireland, and a large number of the remainder of the settlers from the states of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, New York, Maryland, and other eastern seaboard states.
There were 1,355 white males, four colored males, 1,169 white females, and one colored female in the district. A total of 454 families resided in 444 dwellings, and 344 pioneers over 20 years could not read or write. Two hundred and thirty-eight of the residents had attended school within the year.
Some of the unusual names listed on the ledger pages were BOGS, AULDRIDGE, PIERPOINT, CARY, SMYLY, HUGHS, GALELEY, VOHN, LIPWOLD, MELLVILLE, RHOADS, BRUMSTED, MURRELLE, UNGAR, CLUTS, McELWANE, McENTIRE, MONTANG, RAMAN, STURGES, BUMGAMER, DONNAHUE, BLAG, WHIT, HUSH, WOLLWINE, and LUNCEFORD.
The first settlement in Elizabeth Township was made at Kelley’s Mills. Part of the eastern sector of the township in 1803 belonged to Scioto County when Lawrence County did not exist and was part of Gallia County.
The first marriage recorded in the township was on April 11, 1817, between John FERGUSON and Elizabeth McCOY, after whom the township was presumably named.
Microfilms of the 1850 census pages have been made from the old ledgers by the national archives. They are available at Briggs-Lawrence County Public Library in Ironton for public use. The library has on file the censuses of 1850, 1860, and 1870 and is ordering the 1880 census microfilm. Also available is a card file denoting information on many Lawrence County settlers and related genealogy and history books.
Barrel of Brandy Cause of Crooked Elizabeth Boundary Surveyors Apparently Could Not Make a Straight Line When Township Survey Made
Ironton Evening Tribune, September 4, 1938
Submitted by Barbara Madden
Most townships in Lawrence county have nice, conventional boundary lines. But Elizabeth township seems to have gone away like a disobedient child. When you look at it on a county map, it’s borderline western looks like someone had hacked it at right angles with a sharp hatchet.
The explanation goes that the land, now known as Elizabeth township, was not included in the Ohio company grant, and therefore the federal government sent out its own surveying party. Supplies for the surveying party landed at Hanging Rock and amongst them was a barrel of brandy.
By the time the surveyor had quaffed liberally of the brandy, he didn’t know whether he was going North or South – much less would he know if he were going in a straight line.
And so lies the Elizabeth township west boundary line – a brandy-soaked surveyor’s uncertain course.
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