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Nelsonville: The 19th Century
A Timeline of Historic Events

Compiled by the Little Cities of Black Diamonds Council
Spring 2005

Abstracted from the following works of Dr. Ivan Tribe, Professor of History, University of Rio Grande:
Little Cities of Black Diamonds, 1988, Athens County Historical Society & Museum
Sprinkled With Coal Dust, 1989, Athens County Historical Society & Museum

 
  • 1797 Ohio Company Map by Manasseh Cutler notes coal and salt deposits along the HockHocking.
  • 1814 Daniel Nelson of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts purchases large tract of land in York Township
  • 1816 Josiah Coe built a gristmill on Nelson’s land
  • 1818 Daniel Nelson laid out townsite and began selling lots
  • 1820-30 Nelson developed additional lots and laid out a public square
  • 1822 James Knight, an Englishman, opened a store and began a plan to build a bridge across the Hocking River funded by a subscription drive
  • 1828 Bridge across Hocking River completed
  • 1828 Library opens, 47 books in collection
  • 1829 Spring flood destroys bridge.
  • 1830 Storekeeper James Knight took two wagon loads of coal, 116 bushels in all, to Columbus and sold them for 4 cents a bushel
  • 1830 Enumeration shows that Nelsonville contains 12 families, 30 residents. York Twp. grows to 869 residents.
  • 1832 James Knight distributes circular promoting construction of canal southward to the Ohio River.
  • 1835 Lorenzo Poston, age 23, opens store in Nelsonville launching a successful business career in the town. He would become a major coal producer in the early mining days in the valley.
  • 1835 Town founder Daniel Nelson dies
  • 1836 Businessman James Knight dies
  • 1836 Ohio Legislature approves the construction of the Hocking Canal
  • 1836 Methodist Church opens in town, first known church.
  • 1838 Nelsonville incorporated; Charles Cable, a 34 year old tanner, elected mayor
  • 1840 Nelsonville grows to 207 residents
  • 1843 Hocking Canal completed through Nelsonville to Athens
  • 1845 10,699 tons of coal pass through canal toll station @ Nelsonville, a figure that would exceed 60,000 tons by late 1850’s.
  • 1848 Freemasons organize in town, gain charter for Philodorean Lodge #157
  • 1850 Eight coal operators call Nelsonville their home
  • 1850 22,579 barrels of salt pass through toll station at Nelsonville heading north on the canal.
  • 1853 Reilly’s Ohio State Business Directory lists individuals (not firms) engaged in trades in Nelsonville: dry goods, 8; blacksmiths, 3; canal boat builders, 1; boot & shoe makers, 2; cabinet makers, 2; carpenters, 9; carriage makers, 1; coal dealers, 16; grocers, 3; hotel operators, 1; physicians, 4; wagon maker, 1.
  • 1856 Nelsonville organizes its own municipal school district separate from the York Township Board of Education and erect a 3-story brick school for the elementary grades.
  • 1857 Christian Church opens, second known church in town
  • 1858 Odd Fellows organize HockHocking Lodge in Nelsonville.
  • 1859 W.B. Brooks enters the coal business as one of the area’s most successful early operators, though his business went bankrupt 30 years later in 1889.
  • 1860 Nelsonville grows to 741 residents; York Twp., 2,563.
  • 1861 Miners Journal becomes the town’s first newspaper, lasting only a few months and containing more literary items than news. Daniel Shriner and G. W. Sutherland are the editors.
  • 1863 On July 19, General John Hunt Morgan’s Confederate Army passed through the town in retreat from Buffington Island on the Ohio River, setting fire to canal boats, looting stores and stealing horses according to Mrs. Harriet Stuart Hoodlet who as a young girl lived on a canal boat and was rushed to her grandfather’s shoe shop on the Public Square in her mother’s arms.
  • 1866 Lancaster businessmen John D. Martin and Thomas Ewing invest heavily in the long delayed Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad, insuring its construction. Other investors include Nelsonville businessman W. B. Brooks; industrialist Peter Hayden, founder of Haydenville; Columbus hotel operator William Deshler; and former Governor William Dennison. Hayden elected as the first president of the corporation’s board.
  • 1867 Thaddeus Longstreth enters coal business and was one of the most successful in the trade in the Hocking Valley until 1883.
  • 1868 Lorenzo Poston, a Republican, is unsuccessful in his bid for state senate, though he carries the vote in Democratic leaning Nelsonville.
  • 1869 On July 29, the first tracks of the Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad reach Nelsonville signaling the start of the Great Hocking Valley Coal Boom era. The first train load of coal departed Nelsonville to Columbus on August 17.
  • 1869 W. B. Brooks sold 71,248 tons of coal this year, taking in $95,000 and paying $80,000 in wages to 140 employees. Poston employed 50 miners (10 of them children) and sold 17,857 tons.
  • 1869 Lick Run Coal Co. formed by John W. Scott across river from Nelsonville. Mine is served by switch built from new railroad. Soon thereafter the Laurel Hill Coal Company nearby and the town of Bretland was formed. Both disappeared by the end of the century and were replaced by the community of East Clayton.
  • 1870 Nelsonville High School established (approximate date).
  • 1871-72 140,357 tons of coal loaded from town depot in 1871; 256,062 loaded in 1872. Local agent on railroad collected $409,950 during these two years.
  • 1872 Nelsonville Times began publication in August, but folded shortly thereafter.
  • 1872 Presbyterian and Christian Churches announce building plans on Washington and Fort Streets, respectively. Columbus architect John Moser designs both churches.
  • 1873 Nelsonville’s first bank opens—The Merchants and Miners Bank, founded by druggist and coal operator John W. Scott and mill owner Charles Robins.
  • 1873 School enrollment of 275 served by 6 teachers in 1868 grows to 521, but only 7 teachers employed creating an average class size of 47 students.
  • 1873 Construction begins on second rail spur of the C&HVRR to reach the thick “Straitsville Vein” of Coal to the east. The first spur was built in 1870 from Logan to New Straitsville. This spur would begin in Nelsonville and make the town the primary terminus for the Hocking Valley Coal Boom, further boosting rapid growth of the population and the local economy. The line had two branches: the Monday Creek Branch and the Snow Fork Branch and was responsible for creation of boom towns such as Bessemer (Buchtel), Carbon Hill, Murray City and many others before reaching New Straitsville.
  • 1874 Miner T. Ames, part owner of the Lick Run Coal Company, brought African American miners from the south to “discipline” his workers. Violence erupts.
  • 1874 Miners form the Nelsonville Mining Company, a cooperative that hoped to be worker owned. Attempt unsuccessful, but did lead to other more successful cooperative stores in the area.
  • 1879 Canal boat showman Wm. J. Stuart builds opera house on Public Square and begins hosting traveling shows that pack up to 1,000 people into the second story performance space.
  • 1880 Nelsonville’s population reaches 3,095; only 9% of the population is foreign born, making it unusual compared to the other towns in the coal fields where the foreign born population ran as high as 42%. 155 African Americans lived in Nelsonville in 1880.
  • 1880 Hook and Ladder Fire Company forms as town’s first fire department.
  • 1880 Miners from Nelsonville marched east and were joined by miners in New Straitsville, Shawnee and Corning in an attempt to stop the influx of African American miners coming from the south to the new town of Rendville. The Ohio Militia was called in to break up the potential fight, dubbed as the “Corning War”. Several skirmishes took place, with one miner killed, but the crowds dispersed after several days. Black miners remained at Rendville and soon were accepted at the table when area miners led the movement to form the United Mine Workers of America ten years later.
  • 1881 Nelsonville Foundry and Machine Co. established as one of the few successful non-mineral extraction industries in the region, producing equipment for the coal industry.
  • 1884 Local coal operators join together to form “the syndicate” to set prices and wages in their mines. Reduction in the price per ton paid to miners resulted in area miners, led by union organizer Chris Evans, to stage a long and violent strike against the coal operators. National attention to the strike and the work of Evans and his men did not result in increased pay, but did have lasting impact on labor laws and practices in this country.
  • 1886 Nelsonville gamblers lost $1,500 on Silas Dew’s game cock, after it lost its first fight in 4 years.
  • 1888 E. M. Poston established Nelsonville Electric Co. and introduces electric lighting to the town’s streets.
  • 1890 Area miners are key players as the United Mine Workers of America holds its organizing convention in Columbus.
  • 1892 Nelsonville Business College opens teaching commercial trades such as shorthand and typing.
  • 1897 Fans rush the baseball field to protest an umpire’s call during a hotly contested battle between the Nelsonville Grays and the Athens Stars. They chased him to the Dew House and surrounded him before he escaped in his carriage out the back door. The game was forfeited in favor of the Stars, however, the Grays were known as the best baseball team in the Hocking Valley at the Turn of the Century.
  • 1898 Ohio University’s football team defeats Nelsonville High School
  • 1899 Nelsonville High School’s football team defeats Ohio University.
  • 1900 Nelsonville’s population exceeds 5,000 giving it city status for the first time.