In the year 1850 Elizabeth Township was the largest township in Lawrence County, with a population of 2,529.

The area, located in west-central Lawrence County against the Scioto County border, was a great center for the iron industry, with seven active iron furnaces within its boundaries.

In 1828 Robert HAMILTON and Andrew ELLISON, two iron masters of the Hanging Rock iron region, erected Pine Grove furnace and established a business which endured longer than any other industry in Lawrence County.

Mr. HAMILTON was listed in the ledger of the 1850 census as "Robert HAMILTON, born in Pennsylvania, and owned property evaluated worth $80,000." This made him "the richest man in Elizabeth Township."

Mr. HAMILTON, after erecting Hecla furnace east of Ironton, established the Christian ideals by which he lived in the iron industry.

He was determined to bring religion into the every-day lives of the home community by taking the bold step of closing his furnaces on the Sabbath.

This experiment, so far as known, had never been tried in America's iron industry before the Nov. 20, 1844, date which Mr. HAMILTON closed down his furnace.

Mr. HAMILTON married Nancy ELLISON, an aunt of Mrs. John CAMPBELL, wife of the founder and leading capitalist of Ironton, which was "the beginning of his success and fortune."

Other furnaces offering jobs to the 1,359 males in the township were Centre, Vesuvius, Old Union, Empire, Lawrence, and Etna.

Elizabeth Township, like several other Lawrence County townships, has been bypassed by the population explosion. The 1960 census revealed 2,130 Elizabeth residents, 399 persons less than in 1850. This shift of population could be attributed to the changeover from an industrial area to a rural farming area with the advent of the closing of the iron blast furnaces.

The 1850 census recorded most of the Elizabeth residents were born in Ohio, with 471 from Germany, 86 from Ireland, and a large number of the remainder of the settlers from the states of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, New York, Maryland, and other eastern seaboard states.

There were 1,355 white males, four colored males, 1,169 white females, and one colored female residing in the district. The total of 454 families resided in 444 dwellings, and 344 of the pioneers over 20 years of age could not read or write. Two hundred and thirty-eight of the residents had attended school within the year.

Some of the unusual names listed in the ledger pages were BOGS, AULDRIDGE, PIERPOINT, CARY, SMYLY, HUGHS, GALELEY, VOHN, LIPWOLD, MELLVILLE, RHOADS, BRUMSTED, MURRELLE, UNGAR, CLUTS, McELWANE, McENTIRE, MONTANG, RAMAN, STURGES, BUMGAMER, DONNAHUE, BLAG, WHIT, HUSH, WOLLWINE and LUNCEFORD.

The first settlement in Elizabeth Township was made at Kelley's Mills. Part of the eastern sector of the township in 1803 belonged to Scioto County, when Lawrence County did not exist and was part of Gallia County.

The first marriage recorded in the township was on April 11, 1817, between John FERGUSON and Elizabeth McCOY, after whom the township was presumably named.

Microfilms of the actual pages of the 1850 census have been made from the old ledgers by the national archives and are available at Briggs-Lawrence County Public Library in Ironton for public use. The library has on file the censuses of 1850, 1860, and 1870, and is in the process of ordering the 1880 census microfilm. Also available is a card file denoting information on many Lawrence County settlers and related genealogy and history books.