BlockBefore
Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Deucher, Ohio

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1906 and the latest in 2002. It stands in Independence Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45767. It stands on Bell Ridge. The Survey maps it on the Raven Rock quadrangle.

Deucher within Washington County

Then and now

1906 to 2002

The same ground, surveyed 96 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Deucher, surveyed 2002
Topographic sheet of Deucher, surveyed 1906

Compare 1906 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

20 sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Independence township, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From History of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881 - Independence Township

Thomas Simms And His Captivity

About 1810 a man arrived, of adventurous and eventful history. When Thomas Simms was a boy of some eight years of age, living with his kindred near Wheeling, Virginia, the Indians attacked and massacred his grandfather, and several of the family to which he belonged, but spared his life. They took Thomas to what was called Sandusky plains, where they raised him in the ways of their tribe.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

10,374 words on this township

History of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881 names this settlement in its chapter on Independence Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Little is known about this man or his family. He probably cleared the first land in the township, presumably above the mouth of the run. His settlement was either in the latter part of 1700 or first of 1800. His stay was short, for he moved away soon after burying his wife, Sarah, who died in 1804. She was buried in Grand View township near the line and the river. This, the first death in the township, was the origin of the first graveyard in the settlement.

Passage source: History of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Independence Township.

Fires near this place

26 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 26 fires within 5 miles of Deucher between 1992 and 2020, burning about 163 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 6 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning9
Arson/incendiarism6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Natural1
Smoking1
Recreation and ceremony1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
22 September 2007Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreWest Virginia Division of Forestrynot named
13 September 2002Arson/incendiarismunder an acreWayne National ForestNEFF RIDGE
27 August 2002Debris and open burningunder an acreWayne National ForestDAVE DECKER FIRE
8 May 2007Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresWayne National ForestKINDERHOOK
1 May 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreWayne National ForestTUESDAY FIRE
3 April 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWayne National ForestMT. PISGAH
29 April 1992Debris and open burning2.0 acresWest Virginia Division of ForestryBROAD RUN ROAD
7 March 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWayne National ForestSYCAMORE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Washington County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 253 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 253 specimens collected within 10 miles of Deucher between 1905 and 1975: 205 Animalia, 26 Fungi, 21 Plantae, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Bartholomew, E.A., Bartholomew, E.A.; Bumgarner, R., Bonner C. M. and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Dryopteris carthusiana (Vill.) H.P.FuchsDryopteris carthusiana (Vill.) H.P.Fuchs1941Meddles, O.; Steele, M.Millwood Twp. From rich woods (lilly), along Putney Ridge between Quaker City and Salesville.
Alternaria solani Sorauer1905Post A. LeeLong Reach
A photograph of the species Cercospora canescens, not of this specimenCercospora canescens Ellis & G.Martin1905Johnson T. C.Long Reach
A photograph of the species Phyllosticta Pers., not of this specimenPhyllosticta Pers., 18181905Post A. L.Long Reach
A photograph of the species Plasmopara viticola, not of this specimenPlasmopara viticola (Berk. & M.A.Curtis) Berl. & De Toni1905Post, A. L.Long Reach
A photograph of the species Venturia inaequalis, not of this specimenVenturia inaequalis (Cooke) G.Winter1905Johnson T. C.Long Reach
A photograph of the species Puccinia dayi, not of this specimenPuccinia dayi Clinton1909Bonner C. M.Pleasants Co.
A photograph of the species Arenaria serpyllifolia, not of this specimenArenaria serpyllifolia L.1911O. E. JenningsKelly's Island- above Glacial Grooves quarry.
A photograph of the species Dysphania botrys, not of this specimenDysphania botrys (L.) Mosyakin & Clemants1911O. E. JenningsKelly's Island-edges of Glac.; grooves quarry.
A photograph of the species Cyprinella whipplei, not of this specimenCyprinella whipplei Girard, 18561929Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Walker, W. H. (W. Harrington)Little Muskingum River, near Hune Covered Bridge, south of Wingett Run OH, NE Lawrence Township
A photograph of the species Etheostoma blennioides, not of this specimenEtheostoma blennioides Rafinesque, 18191929Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Walker, W. H. (W. Harrington)Little Muskingum River, near Hune Covered Bridge, south of Wingett Run OH, NE Lawrence Township
A photograph of the species Micropterus punctulatus, not of this specimenMicropterus punctulatus (Rafinesque, 1819)1929Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Walker, W. H. (W. Harrington)Little Muskingum River, near Hune Covered Bridge, south of Wingett Run OH, NE Lawrence Township

All 253 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Deucher: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Gemstone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Mason's House of Flint MineGemstoneProducer1969

Every working recorded in Washington County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Archers Fork1.3 miles20
Wade2.2 miles20
Leith2.6 miles20
Shay3.2 miles16
Schley3.5 miles19
Ward (historical)3.5 miles16
Murphy3.5 miles20
Steel Run4.0 miles19

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on DeucherAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q22133349The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1075706. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.