Valley Township
While the territory of Valley Township was as early settled permanently as any in the county, Valley Township did not come into existence until 1860, which was then too late for the United States census of that year. It was first a portion of Seal Township. A few years after, or in 1814, Seal Township elected its last Assessor and in 1815 that on the west side of the river was given to Union Township and the east side to Jefferson. This remained the territory of Jefferson until June 4, 1860.
The area of the Township is 15,477 acres of land and the Township is bounded on the north by Pike County, on the east by Jefferson Township, on the south by Clay Township and on the west by the Scioto River, which separates it from Rush and Morgan Townships.
The first settler of Valley Township was Hezekiah Merritt, who planted the first corn in the Township, one of three corn crops raised in the summer of 1796. Mr. Merritt several years after removed to Ross County, but he was the First Justice of the Peace in that section of the county in 1804-06. Jacob Groninger came in 1798; then Henry Spangler, Wm Marsh, Jas. O. Johnson, Isaac N. Johnson, A.F. Miller, Mark Snyder and Caleb B. Crull. The oldest settlers are: L. Groninger, W.A. Marsh, Jas. D. Thomas, Jno. L. Jones, G.O. James and Joseph Brandt, Sr.
Valley Township is all that its name implies, for it lies wholly within the valley of the Scioto, on the east side of the river and extends back to the hills with only an average width of perhaps two and a half miles, or a little over.
Read more on the Scioto County Engineer's Page