Townships

Lawrence County, Ohio, is divided into fourteen townships. It was common for early residents to relocate between townships or for the boundaries to change over time. When tracing your ancestors, we encourage you to follow the waterways, early churches, schools, and cemeteries. The Lawrence Register hopes the following links and maps will help you in this research.

Aid Township

Aid Township has a rich agricultural history. Early historical accounts refer to the community of Marion, settled in 1815 and laid out in 1840, but accounts differ about the sequence of names Marion and Aid. The naming history deserves further verification against early records.

Decatur Township

Decatur Township is named after the naval hero Commodore Stephen Decatur. It is located in the northwestern part of the county. Much of the land is hilly and covered with forests; both Wayne National Forest and Dean State Forest are partially in this township. Pine Creek is the most significant waterway, and State Route 93 runs throughout the center.

Elizabeth Township

Elizabeth Township is known for its rolling hills. Local histories associate its name with the wife of Robert Hamilton, proprietor of Pine Grove Furnace. The precise origin of the township name merits further documentation.

Fayette Township

Fayette Township was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French military officer who supported American independence during the Revolutionary War. Burlington, Ohio, Lawrence County’s first county seat, is located in this township.

Hamilton Township

Hamilton Township is named after Robert Hamilton, a pioneer iron master, and is recognized for its contributions to the early iron industry. The first cabin was built in 1796 by Luke Kelley, who also built and ran the first gristmill in 1799. It was a floating mill that stood out in the Ohio River, near what was once called Union Landing.

Lawrence Township

Lawrence Township, named for Capt. James Lawrence, is central to the county's identity, offering a blend of historical sites and modern amenities. It was settled in 1806 and is located in Lawrence County, Ohio. Andis and Kitts Hill are situated in this township.

Mason Township

Mason Township takes its name from the Freemasons, according to local historical accounts. The township was organized on August 3, 1819, and early settlement began around 1810.

Perry Township

Perry Township was named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, whose naval victory on Lake Erie on September 10, 1813, helped secure American control of the lake during the War of 1812. The township borders the Ohio River, and early settlement dates to 1799.

Rome Township

Rome Township was named because of the seven hills that covered Belle, like Rome on the Tiber. The Rome Beauty Apple was named after this Township, which borders Gallia County to the east. This township, comprising thirty-seven sections, was formerly called Center Township but changed to Rome in 1821-1822. Joseph Miller, the first actual settler, built the first log cabin in 1787, where Haskellville now stands. James Miller, son of Joseph Miller, was the first white child born in this township. To read more about the early families of Rome Township, you can read an article by R. C. Hall. 

Symmes Township

Symmes Township was named in honor of John Cleves Symmes, father-in-law of General and President William Henry Harrison. Symmes Creek was first named after him because it is claimed that he carved his name on a tree near the mouth once en route between his new home in the west and his old one in the east. The ‘Early Days of Symmes” gives many historical stories written by John T. Irwin.

Union Township

Union Township was named in honor of President Andrew Jackson, who saved the Union from rebellion by promptly putting down the nullification of South Carolina. It lies on the Ohio River just below the Ohio Company’s Purchase. It belonged originally – that is, originally so far as the United States is concerned – to one of those tracts of land known as Congress Lands because they were sold in parcels of varying sites direct[ed] by the government to individuals under rules and regulations laid down by the Congress.

Upper Township

Upper Township was so named because it was the uppermost township in Adams County when that county extended to this section, which for many years mainly consisted of Ironton, Ohio. This is in Range Eighteen, although it is not a full-sized township, like many Townships along the Ohio River, which cuts away much of its southern portion.

Washington Township

Washington Township was named in honor of George Washington. Located in northern Lawrence County, it borders Jackson County, Ohio. Blackfork was a historically significant African American community. Local histories also associate the area with the Underground Railroad and Poke Patch.

Windsor Township

Windsor Township was organized in 1839. Local historical accounts differ about which place named Windsor inspired the township’s name. Peter Wakefield was among the early settlers near Scottown. The old township house stood near the center of the township. The Methodist campgrounds on Symmes Creek and Pomaria School are also associated with Windsor's history.

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Editor’s Note: The following historical sketch was written by Attorney H. M. Edwards and submitted to the Ironton Tribune before his death on February 19, 1939. The account is preserved as a historical source and reflects the recollections, language, and historical understanding of its time. Some statements have not been independently verified.

Much could be said about the early political situation, the slavery question, and many other interesting incidents. Still, space at this time forbids it, but to give you an insight into the living conditions of the early days, I quote from a diary record kept by a grandfather who settled in this county shortly after it was first settled.

“I was born in Eastern Va in 1812, and when a very small lad, my father decided to move west. He disposed of all his goods and chattels, except some bed clothing and some necessary articles, which he packed on a bay mare; then we started for Ohio, my mother riding the mare, father and I walking accompanied by a dog and father carrying a gun.

We crossed the Allegheny and Sewell Mountains and stopped at Carnfax’s Ferry, Nicholas County, Va, now WV, for the Winter. Ours was the fourth family in that neighborhood and was several miles from the nearest settlement.

We all lived in common and passed the Winter very pleasantly. Bear and game of all kinds were plentiful, and I had the pleasure of accompanying the men to dig a bear out of his den. When they killed the bear, it was divided into four parts, each family taking a quarter.

We remained at this place the following Summer, raised a small crop which was disposed of, then proceeded on our journey down the Kanawha Valley and crossed the Ohio River near the mouth of the Big Sandy. Finding the people along the river all shaking with ague, we moved into the hill country where it was said it was healthier and the game was more plentiful.

Here we settled on the middle fork of Ice Creek in Perry Township, Lawrence County, Ohio. Here we built our log cabin on the public lands and began clearing the forests while our flocks and herds roamed in the woods. In my memory, things were in a very primitive state. People threshed their wheat with a flail or trampled it out by horses on the ground and blew the chaff out with a sheet.

The farming tools consisted of a shovel, plow, mattock, scythe, cradle, and hoes. Hand rakes gathered hay, and forked sticks were used as pitchforks. There were a few, if any, wagons, and a man with a light running sled was considerably well-fixed. There were a few wagons in the county along the river, but a wagon at that time was rather a curiosity. When it was known that one passed the road, the youngsters would gather at the roadside and follow it at some distance to see its great wheels roll on the ground. It was said that they expected to see the big rear wheels catch up with the front ones.

Women made most of the clothing through every process, from the raw material to the finished product. A smart woman was reckoned with the amount of work she could do. Our only neighbors were the Bruce’s and Sperry’s. The Bruce and Sperry were stone masons, and as there was not much stone masonry to do, they had to go long distances from home to get work to do. After the log jail burned down, John Sperry built the stone jail at Burlington.

There was a man who lived in that vicinity by the name of William B. Morrison, a cabinet maker by trade and an undertaker. He also practiced the medical profession, mainly bleeding the patient. This was the first step in medical treatment and between a pint and a quart of blood was the amount taken from the arm, usually for only slight ailments.

Another pioneer was Jonathan Melvin, who, when coming down the river in a small boat, stopped for the night on the bank of the Ohio River, just above what is now Coal Grove. After landing, they had a small daughter, built a temporary shed, and went into camp for the night. A panther sprang upon the bed and took the child during the night. They made it drop the child a short distance from the shack with slight harm.

A few days later, the panther was killed by Poagues Negroes from KY. Mr. Melvin remained and built a log cabin on the river bank and, being a cooper by trade, made pails, churns, and another vessel from cedar trees groaning near, which the people very much needed. He later settled in the vicinity of Rock Camp, where many of his descendants still live.

Getting the milling done was the one great chore, and a man who had a boy large enough to go to the mill felt relieved of quite a burden. Many a boy was put at the business very young. He encountered many mishaps, often having to go long distances across rising streams and over long hills, where the sack of grain thrown across the horse would slip back, and he would have to turn the horse around and roll the sack back to its place.

There were not many systems for milling in those days. It depended a great deal upon one’s strength and ability to argue the case as to who gets his milling done first, and if a boy was lacking in either of these, he usually found his sack in the bottom of the grist and was very late at night in getting home. Mill boys had their ups and downs in those days, but they usually proved equal to any emergency.

In the early days, there were no cooking utensils, except the pot and skillet, and the cooking was done in the open wood fire, the pot hanging from a crane above the fire and the skillet covered among the live coals.

However, very early in the county’s history, a man named Davis came to this county to live, and his household effects was a wood cook stove. The family had many callers from near and far that they might get a peep at the stove. The subject was one of the neighborhood gossip. Some thought you would have to take lessons before you could cook upon it, while others said that food cooked on it would not be fit to eat, and the general conclusion for all was that it was just calculated to burn up the house.

Wood was the staple fuel, and it was more than plentiful while clearing the virgin timber ground. Fireplaces were wide and high. A huge log two or three feet in diameter was used as the backlog, while a smaller log was the forestick, and the smaller wood was burned in the center. Some houses had a door on each side of the house and would hitch a horse to the backlog and drag it into the house, and while the log was being rolled to the fireplace, the horse would go out at the other door.

Most houses were built of hewn logs cut from virgin timber, and many still stand after more than a century of wind and rain had beaten upon them. The roofs were of clapboards riven from oak trees, and the fences were built of rails split from the trees cut in the clearing.

In those days, not more than one person in a community took a newspaper, and people would congregate at the county store or post office, and one man read the paper aloud. Later, however, roads were laid out, and while none had hard surfaces, settlers began to move in, and by the time of the Mexican War, things had taken a great step forward.”

At the close of the Mexican War, this county had a population of 15,246, and ten years later, when the Civil War began, the population was 23,176, of which 4,000 lived in the city of Ironton.

In the great war between the states, this county stood loyal to the Union as it had when Andrew Jackson was President and sent 3,357 soldiers to fight for the Union cause, of whom over 500 were from Ironton.

Another subject that has always been a part of the history of the county situated on the plain of the Ohio River is floods. A flood in the Ohio Valley is a calamity when the river rises to 55 feet, and is a major calamity when it rises to 60 feet. The great floods of 60 feet or more are as follows:

• 1832 63 feet
• 1847 62 feet
• 1883 63 feet
• 1884 66 feet
• 1913 67 feet
• 1937 70.6 feet

While all the things enumerated were being enacted in the lower end of Lawrence County, fruit culture in the upper end was making great strides, and the original Rome Beauty Apple tree was grafted in Rome Township. Spraying was tried and tested for the first time in America by Ohio State University on the Nelson Cox farm in Windsor Township on Greasy Ridge.

During Ironton’s life history of 86 years, many great institutions have come and gone, playing a large part in the history of the age which is served. Most of those that began when the city was founded is now passed away, but at least three remain:

• The First National Bank
• The Gold camp Mill Co.
• The Tribune Publishing Co.

Much could be said about some of the great industries that have come and gone, the early public schools, the early churches, and many more things of interest in and about the community. Still, in the limited time, we have been able to touch on a few of the things I deemed of local interest.