Pomeroy

Pomeroy, a village and the county-seat of Meigs county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, about 85 m. S.S.E. of Columbus. Pop. (1890), 4726; (1900), 4639, of whom 453 were foreign-born and 280 were negroes. Pomeroy is served by the Hocking Valley and (across the river) Baltimore & Ohio railways, by inter-urban electric railway, and by passenger and freight boats to the leading river ports. It occupies a strip of ground between the river and a range of steep hills. Bituminous coal and salt abound in the district, and there are deposits of building stone, fireclay and glass sand. The first settlement here was established in 1816, coal mining was begun three years later, and in 1827 a town was laid out and named Nyesville. There was little progress, however, until 1833, when Samuel W. Pomeroy (in whose honour the present name was adopted) formed a company, which began mining coal on a large scale. Pomeroy was incorporated as a village and was made the county-seat in 1841. In 1850 the first of several salt wells, from 1000 to 1200 ft. in depth, was operated.