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The arrival of the Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad in 1869 led to the decline of the Hocking Canal and assured Nelsonville’s prominence as a major shipping point of coal and industrial products. The portion of the railway from Logan in Nelsonville was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, along with steam locomotive #33 and caboose #90704.
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To furnish the needs of the early settlers, then to furnish ordnance for a nation at war, and finally to furnish merchant iron to the steel mills, 100 iron producing blast furnaces were built within these 1,800 square miles of the lower coal measures to become known as the Hanging Rock Region. Lawrence County, centrally located within the Region, had 23 blast furnaces constructed between 1826 and 1909.
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The twelfth lock on the Hocking Canal, the Sheep Pen lock underscores Southeast Ohioans’ efforts to open their region to the world during the mid-nineteenth century. Built as a guard lock, it was intended to permit slackwater navigation of the Hocking River by regulating water depths where river and canal met. Those plans were later abandoned and the mechanism was converted to a lift lock, which raised and lowered boats as required by changes in the canal’s elevation. (Continued on other side)
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Approximately 150 feet east stood the Hisylvania Coal Company Mine No. 22 tipple, in use from 1912 to 1925. The company name was derived from combining “Ohio” and “Pennsylvania,” home states of its founders. Coal came from the mine portal in small railcars, was cleaned and sized in the tipple, and loaded into gondolas for shipment. The Mine No. 22 tipple had a brick and concrete frame, likely the only one of this type in Ohio. When demolished in 2000, it was one of the last tipples still standing as a reminder of Ohio’s 1880-1920 coal boom and the Hocking Valley coal field’s contribution during this era.
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This historic inn began serving travelers on the old Portage-Columbiana stage road (now Tallmadge Road) in 1832. Two major stage lines, one from Cleveland to Wellsville (the closest Ohio River port) and the other from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, passed through Palmyra in the early 1800s. Originally a simple two-story Greek Revival-style building, it had its third story added in 1888 when it became a lodge for the Knights of Pythias fraternal organization. It served as a private residence and store for most of the 20th century. The Palmyra Center Hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
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Originally known as Hocking Furnace, Haydenville was founded by and named for Columbus industrialist Peter Hayden (1806-1888), who energetically developed the coal, iron, sandstone, and fire clay deposits found in abundance in this area. Here he operated an iron furnace, coal mines and sandstone quarries, shipping products on the Hocking Canal and, later, the Hocking Valley Railroad he helped build. The incorporation of the Haydenville Mining and Manufacturing Company in 1882 initiated the manufacture of brick and ceramic tile from fire clay. Business boomed in the late 19th century as cities paved their streets with brick and fireproof construction became popular in the wake of widely publicized and tragic fires.
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John Campbell (1818-1891), founder of Ironton, was an ironmaster and president of the Ohio Iron & Coal Company, a Presbyterian, and an abolitionist. This house and barn, which he built in 1850, became a stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves crossing the Ohio River from Kentucky. Fugitives were concealed here and furnace wagons transported the escapees northward by way of Campbell’s furnaces in Lawrence and Jackson counties.
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Asa Bushnell, former Governor of Ohio, encouraged by the light grade of the land, decided to establish the Springfield, Troy, and Piqua Railway (ST&P) in July 1904. The interurban traction line utilized sixty-pound rail and traveled over only one bridge. With direct current electricity generated in Springfield, the ST&P used four double-ended fifty-foot cars, each with a railroad roof, arch windows, GE-57 engines, and fifty-horsepower motors. The ST&P traveled from Springfield’s Fountain Square to Maitland, Hill Top, Lawrenceville, Bushnell, North Hampton, Dialton, Thackery, Proctors, Christiansburg, Brights, and Casstown and ended at Troy’s North Market Street Bridge. Later rights were granted to travel over the Great Miami River into Troy in conjunction with the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railway. The northwest right-of-way from Casstown to Piqua was secured but never built.
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