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

Sewellsville, Ohio

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1903 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Kirkwood Township. It lies in ZIP code area 43713. The Survey maps it on the Fairview quadrangle.

Sewellsville within Belmont County

Then and now

1903 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 91 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Sewellsville, surveyed 1994

Topographic sheet of Sewellsville, surveyed 1903

Compare 1903 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 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 Kirkwood township, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From Centennial History of Belmont County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens., published 1903 - Kirkwood Township

The Only Execution In A Century

One of the most exciting incidents in the history of Kirkwood township was the murder of Louisa Fox, in 1869, by a notorious character named Thomas L3. Carr, a coal miner in the employ of Alexander Hunter. Carr was a man of had repute, who had become infatuated with the beauty of the girl - for she was but 14 years of age - and because she refused to marry him, he inhumanely took the innocent's life.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

3,926 words on this township

Centennial History of Belmont County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens., published 1903 names this settlement in its chapter on Kirkwood Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The population of Kirkwood township in 1900 was 1,698, a loss of 152 since 1890. VVhile there is ai slight loss in population there is an increase of property on the tax duplicate. In Sewellsville precinct alone the increase amounts to $1,542, while the tax levy for 1902 is 1.32 as against 1.64 m 1901.

Passage source: Centennial History of Belmont County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens., published 1903.

Of Hendrysburg was organized in 1835, by Rev. Thomas Ruckle, with 12 original members, viz : - Andrew Barnett and family, John Gilbert and wife, Andrew Foreman, Jonathan Dunn, Daniel Renner, James Hutchison, and John Casey and family. For the first few years, they met for worship in an old log cabin, one-fourth mile east of town. In March, 1836, Brice Murphy deeded the society a lot, on which was erected a brick church, dedicated in 1838 by Rev. Edward Smith. The original trustees were Andrew Foreman, Jonathan Dunn, William Porter, John Gilbert, John W. Ayers, Moses Melton and John Casey. In 1869 the society erected a new frame church, dedicated May, 1870, by Rev. H. W. Baker, size 40 by 52 feet, costing, with some repairs, about $3,000. At one time, Ann Archibald, a returned missionary, conducted services for some time for her brother who was the pastor. A number of former pastors later became presiding elders, among whom the present one, M. J. Slutz. The present pastor is Rev. Harlan Appleton ; officials, - W. W. Groves, E. G. Moore, R. P. Majors, L. D. Jones, J. W. iVcton, J. E. Lloyd and Etta Hamilton ; Sunday school superintendent, - W. W. Groves; other officials, - C. H. James and E. Kate Gray.

Passage source: Centennial History of Belmont County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens., published 1903.

In 1831, upon petition of certain citizens, a post office was granted and the name of the village was changed to Sewellsville, after Peter Sewell, the first postmaster. The successors of Mr. Sewell in the post office were : William Jarvis, John Anderson, J. R. Ball, Isaiah Mitchell, John Widdoes, Joshua Young and the present incumbent, A. J. Wheaton. A number of postmasters who served between 1880 and 1900 are necessarily omitted.

Passage source: Centennial History of Belmont County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens., published 1903.

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 Kirkwood Township - it names this place 5 more 5 times.

Fires near this place

4 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Sewellsville between 2003 and 2019, burning about 6 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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 burning	4

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

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 April 2005	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	not named
29 March 2004	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	not named
28 March 2003	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	not named
27 March 2019	Debris and open burning	5.5 acres	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	15045

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Belmont County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 63 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 63 specimens collected within 10 miles of Sewellsville between 1905 and 1972: 42 Plantae, 17 Animalia, 3 Fungi, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Goff, Buker, W.E., Buker, W.E.; Henry, L.K. 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Medicago lupulina L.	1961	Robert Gray; Charles O. Wingo Jr.	1 mile west of Hendrysburg.
unnamed	1905	Laughlin Emma E.	Barnesville
Merulius incarnatus (S.Ito & S.Imai) Spirin & Zmitr.	1905	Laughlin Emma E.	Barnesville
Dryopteris goldiana (Hook. ex Goldie) A.Gray	1907	Laughlin, E.E.	Barnesville
Geastrum triplex Jungh.	1907	Laughlin Emma E.	Barnesville
Stereum fasciatum (Schwein.) Fr.	1907	Laughlin Emma E.	Barnesville
Botrychium dissectum Spreng.	1919	Laughlin, E.E.	Barnesville
Campostoma anomalum (Rafinesque, 1820)	1925	CL & LC Hubbs	Stillwater Creek, 5 mi N of Barnesville
Etheostoma nigrum Rafinesque, 1820	1925	CL & LC Hubbs	Stillwater Creek, 5 mi N of Barnesville
Hypentelium nigricans (Lesueur, 1817)	1925	CL & LC Hubbs	Stillwater Creek, 5 mi N of Barnesville
Luxilus cornutus (Mitchill, 1817)	1925	CL & LC Hubbs	Stillwater Creek, 5 mi N of Barnesville
Notropis buccatus (Cope, 1865)	1925	CL & LC Hubbs	Stillwater Creek, 5 mi N of Barnesville

All 63 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Cabinet	1.4 miles	13
Golda	2.8 miles	14
Reynolds Road Cottage Area	3.0 miles	14
Hendrysburg	3.3 miles	13
Goodrich Cottage Area	4.3 miles	14
Egypt	4.6 miles	13
Loghaven	4.6 miles	14
Belmont Ridge	5.0 miles	14

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1065303. 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.