Sligo, Ohio

In the year 1835, a charter was granted by the Legislature for building the Goshen, Columbus & Wilmington pike. Work was begun on the southwest end of it the following year. The portion in Clinton County was built mainly in 1839, but not completed until 1840. It was never completed the whole distance, that part in Clinton County stopping two miles east of Wilmington. The line from Clarksville to Wilmington was in the main built on the route of a road laid out by Doan and Millikan in 1823, but on a more direct line, cutting off many of the angles. The building of this pike was looked upon at the time by the people of Clinton County, and especially those residing along the line, as an event of great importance in the history of the county. It facilitated travel and gave the farmers a broad, macadamized highway over which to trasport their grain and produce to market at Cincinnati. It shortened the time of the trip fully one-half. It gave the people of Adams Township, and indeed of the whole county, the benefit of a stage line, with daily coaches each way; also greatly increased mail facilities. A line of telegraph was established along the pike, which remained until the 0., W. & Z. Railroad was built. This was the first pike in the county. Toll-gates were erected at various points, and tolls taken. A toll-gate house was built at the hal E-way point between Wilmington and Clarksville, which might be termed the nucleus of the village of Sligo.

Passage source: The History of Clinton County, Ohio, published 1882.

There are only two villages in the township, Sligo and Ogden, neither of which is incorporated. Sligo had no existence prior to the building of the Goshen & Wilmington Turnpike. A man by the name of George Taylor, a hatter by trade, had a shop there on a lot in the forks of the road long before the town was laid out. This lot was afterward owned by John Kimbrough, on which he built a house in 1841 or 1842, the first two-story house erected in the town. In this building he kept hotel for several years. A toll-gate house (the first one) was built by John Shields in 1840. The lot is now owned by the heirs of John Murphy. The second toll-gate house was built by Rebecca Kersey, sister of Thomas Kersey, but the gate was kept by the Widow Beach. The toll-gate was taken down several years ago, but the house is still standing. John Swindler was the first blacksmith at Sligo, and John Hawthorn the next. Hawthorn left in the spring of 1839, and went to Eaton. John Kimbrough commenced smithing in the same shop, a log one, in 1839. It -stood north of the pike, but on the south side of the old road. That shed was torn down, and a brick one built by Kimbrough, in 1841.

Passage source: The History of Clinton County, Ohio, published 1882.

Soon afterward, George Slack built a two-story brick residence on the south side of the pike and occupied it until he moved West. It is now owned by Stillings. Simon Harvey settled on his farm and lived there long before Sligo was a town. The town got its name from the brand of iron that was used at the smithshop at the time, it having been made at the Sligo Mills, in Pittsburgh, they probably having taken the name from a town of that name in the northern part of Ireland. Matthias O'Neall, who owned a farm south of the pike, sold to John Kimbrough an acre and a half of land July 1.2, 1841, and a year later sold him three-fourths of an acre more. This was afterward divided up into smaller lots by Kimbrough, and sold to various persons. lie built his smithshop on one of the lots. Kimbrough, in 1842, also bought three-fourths of an acre of Rebecca Kersey. She had some years before bought seventeen acres of William Hadley. She afterward sold lots to Calvin Andrew, J. W. Slack, H. S. Slack, Delos Ferris and Mary J. Hadley. O'Neall afterward sold lots to E. & J. Hadley, Deios Ferris and Simon Harvey. William S. Riley sold a lot to E. K. Howland April 17, 1848, and afterward sold lots to Jesse Thatcher and Cyrus E. Carter. Edward S. Davis sold fourteen and a half acres to Mary S. Hadley, in December, 1848, and later sold two and a fourth acres to William Henson, and one- fourth of an acre to Sarah Hardesty.

Passage source: The History of Clinton County, Ohio, published 1882.

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 Adams Township - it names this place 23 more 23 times.