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NEWPORT ONE OF EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS
Newport had its beginning 10 years after the Marietta settlement. At the regular meeting of the Court of Quarter Sessions in Marietta in 1798, a distinct township, “all that territory lying east of the western boundary of the Seventh Range,” was set apart and named Newport Township. This included what is now the eastern third of Washington County. Six townships,including Newport Township, were within its original boundaries.
The DANAS and the GREENES share the honor of having made the first settlement in what is Newport. Both came in the same year, 1798. William and Luther DANA secured a large tract of land and erected the first log houses. The brothers were sons of Captain William DANA, Revolutionary War soldier, who settled in Belpre.
William DANA placed his cabin near what is now called Milltown, where he built the first mill. Luther DANA built his house on a part of the farm that is now the ADKINS home, just above Newport village.
---Moved From Belpre
John GREENE and his family came to Newport about the same time. GREENE built his log house on what is now the Greenwood farm. The GREENE family lived previously at Belpre. Daniel GREENE built the first brick house in Newport and on of the first in the Ohio Valley in 1808. The house has been in the GREENWOOD family for several generations. Is now the home of Mrs. Carrie GREENE GREENWOOD, widow of Junius GREENWOOD, and their son, William C.GREENWOOD. Prominent among the early families of Newport, several of which were connected with the original pioneer families of Marietta, were the BATTELLES, the James B. GREENE family, the ADKINS family, the Christopher GREENE family, the HOLDRENS, the WOODS, the HASKELLS, the FERGUSONS, the LITTLES, the BARKERS, the KERRS, the CREES, the GALES, MceLHINNEYS (I think this should be McKENNEYS), REAS, and GANOS.
---First Church Organized
Churches in Newport were not built until many years after the Newport pioneers established their homes. The Methodist Church was organized in 1825 and the first church building was erected in 1829. The present church was built in 1870. The Baptist denomination in Newport has always been a strong one. Its first church was built in 1842. The present church was dedicated in 1880. Besides the Methodist and Baptist denominations, the Church of Christ was recently organized.
Luther BARKER was the first postmaster at Newport. succeeding postmasters of the early years were Ebenezer BATTELLE, Dr. George W. GALE, Joseph W. CRANDALL, Thomas O’NEAL, Samuel AMLIN, Alfred CREE, George DAVENPORT, John M. GANO, E. A. JONES and George W. HAIGHT. A postoffice was established in 1841 at Lower Newport, with Jacob MIDDLESWART as postmaster; one at Newell’s Run in 1865, with Thomas J. CONNER the postmaster of Newport. Outlying post offices were abandoned with the coming of rural free delivery.
---Education Fostered
Newport has always fostered education. Newport High School was established in the era when high schools were built in Washington County villages and rural districts, in the last few decades. Erastus ADKINS of Newport was in the second class graduated from Marietta College, and served later on the faculty of the college. Theodore GREENWOOD, valedictorian of his class, was a casualty of the Civil War shortly after his graduation.
Newport was a “milltown” in its early years. The first grist mill was a water mill built by the pioneer William DANA. Until the 1913 flood Newport had a flouring mill that was built in 1879 by the old Newport Mill Company of which Victor Hugo TORNER was president.
---Banished Liquor Long Ago
Distilleries were numberous in Newport in the early days of the settlement. Reference to old account books of store-keepers shows that in the early days whiskey was legal tender for payment of debts. Newport takes pride in the fact that liquor was banished from the village more that a century ago, and that little liquor traffic has been carried on there since.
Debbie (Noland) Nitsche
Washington County, Ohio Hisorical & Geneaology "Links"
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