Twin Township Facts

Twin Township has been in existence since 1805. 
It is located in the south-central part of Ross County. 
U.S. highway route 50 runs through the heart of the township. 
The unincorporated village of Bourneville is situated in the center of the township, where the township Fire House and Garage are located.
The small village of Slate Mills is at the east end of the township along U.S. highway 50.  The village of Nipgen is in the southwest corner of the township along state route 772.
Population of the township is approximately 3,200, and is 60 square miles in size.
The township maintains about 41 miles of township roads, of which all but about 3 miles are paved.
There is one active cemetery in the township and several smaller, inactive ones.

Twin Township History

Twin Township of Ross County was organized February 20, 1805.  It was carved out of the townships of Union, Concord and Paxton.  Record of the first elections in the township were lost or not properly kept.  The earliest records of the township were of 5 years later and included the following as public officials:  John McDonald, William Reed and Job Harness, Trustees;  Henry Porter, Clerk;  George Haller and Moses Dimmel, Overseers of the Poor;  Andrew Gursham, Lister;  Jacob Haller, house appraiser;  Daniel Hare, Treasurer;  George Yoakum and Abijah Flora, fence viewers;  Robert McMahan, Peter Clover and James Irwin, constables;  John Harness, Philip Hare, Samuel Teter, and John Walker, Supervisors.

The largest concentration of population in the township is in the unincorporated village of Bourneville, which lies in the center of the township on U.S. route 50 approximately 15 miles west of Chillicothe.  It is flanked at the east end of the village by Lower Twin Creek, and the west end by Upper Twin Creek.  Bourneville was settled around 1811, and at that time was known as “Twintown”.  However, in 1832, two of the town fathers at that time, Issac McCrackin and John Boswell, decided to change the name to Bourneville, in honor of a cartographer from Pennsylvania by the name of Alexander Bourne,  whom they both admired.  There is no evidence that Alexander Bourne ever visited Twin Township. 

One of Twin Township's “favorite sons” was Myrl H. Shoemaker, who served several years as a state representative and also as the 57th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio.  Mr. Shoemaker was born in Twin Township and lived his entire adult life in Bourneville, where he and his wife, Dorothy,  raised 8 children.  He and Dorothy are buried in the Twin Township cemetery. 

The Twin Township Fire house is located in the middle of the village on the north side of the road.  Just behind the Fire House is a small stone building that served as a jail for the village.  This jail was built in the 1800’s by two residents of the township, Sam McCord, a veteran of the Civil War,  and Bill Gragg.  These two also were the first to be incarcerated there  because of their excessive celebration of the completion of the construction.