SILVERCREEK TOWNSHIP
Pg. 126

     Silvercreek Township was organized 4 March 1811 and included all the southeastern corner of the county until the formation of Jefferson Township in 1858.  It now contains but one town, Jamestown.  MECHANICSVILLE, two miles south of Jamestown, is merely a crossing of the roads where formerly were a store and blacksmith shop.
     JAMESTOWN was laid out and recorded in 1816 and so named for James Browder, an early pioneer farmer of the locality.  The site was originally owned by Thomas Browder and Martin Mendenhall.  The earliest enterprises that are recalled are the woolcarding mill of James Hodges, and Merrick & McBride's still and grist mill.  The proprietors of the enterprises together with most of the farmers in the locality were immigrants from Carolina and Virginia.  The selection of the site of the town was a happy one; it is 16 miles from Wilmington, 18 from Washington, and 12 from Xenia.  This isolation, even with the traveling facilities of today, serves to mitigate the competition of the larger towns.  It is to the large farming area whose trade it thus possesses that the town owes its steady prosperity and growth.

JAMESTOWN.       Three upper photos by Mock.
Main Street, looking west.
Cemetery Entrance
Church Street, looking south
The Old Swimming Hole.

The region about Jamestown is a broad, level plain, extending for miles in every direction.  The soil is a deep rich, black loam that brings phenomenal prices. 
     There have been o spasmodic booms with their inevitable subsequent depression at Jamestown.  The several attempts towards the commercialization of the oil and gas of which the region gives indications have been too tentative to involve much loss.
     In the spring of 1884 a cyclone destroyed nearly a third of the town, but the fact that there are no evidences of the disaster today exemplifies the industry and prosperity of the citizens.  While there are no evidences of Jamestown's calamity, the abundance and quality of the farm produce that comes to its markets is still bearing record of Jamestown's greatest triumph, namely, the Jamestown Fair, which was started in 1860 and soon attained proportions second only to those of the Ohio State Fair.  It was discontinued several years ago.
     Today Jamestown's population is about 1500 (official, in 1900, 1205).  Its industrial life is represented by two grain elevators, one flouring mill, one lumber yard, one cement block factory, one tile mill, one carriage factory, two banks, two news papers, two hotels, three restaurants, three livery barns, two greenhouses, forty stores and sops of various kinds, and a commercial club.  The town is situated on the Wellston division of the C. H. & D. Railroad.
     Jamestown's social organizations are: Masons, I. O. O. F., O. E. S., G. U. O. of O. F., Junior Order, K. of P., M. W. of A., and the Ladies' Advance Club.  There are nine churches and an opera house in Jamestown.  The denominations represented are: Baptist (2), M. E. and A. M. E., U. P., Church of Christ, Friends, Roman Catholic, and Christian.
     The first characteristics that impress a visitor in the town are its beautiful deep-verandaed homes and the city-like appearance of its business section.  It is Jamestown's unique good fortune to possess the tranquility of the village without its lethargy, and the industry of a city without its frenzy.
                                                                                                         F. McD. T.

JAMESTOWN.              Photos by Mock
Main Street Public School                                    Methodist Church
Presbyterian                Opera House.

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