Chauncey, in Dover Township, Ohio

From looking at the remains of the town of Chauncey today, you wouldn't know that this town was once a huge industrial city in Athens county.  In the earliest days the natural salt springs are what brought the pioneers to the area.  Later the coal industry is what made Chauncey thrive.

 From the 1883 History of the Hocking Valley, " Chauncey is situated on a level plot of ground forming a tongue of land between the mouth of the Sunday Creek and the Hocking.  It has been a town of considerable trade, especially during those years of the active manufacture of salt.  It's location is favorable for the building up of a large town.  There is ample building room for 20,000 inhabitants.  Should some of our Eastern capitalists make Chauncey a center of operation on coal mining and iron making, there would soon gather into its locality a large and thriving population.  It being situated on the Ohio Central and at the terminus of Sunday Creek Valley it would have the advantages of two valleys, Hocking and Sunday Creek." 

By 1905 some capitalists did just that and opened up mines in Chauncey.  For about half a century the mines brought many people to the area and many made a satisfying life from the profits of the coal industry here.  Today Chauncey is going the way of other coal mining towns, just a few residents left that enjoy the beautiful scenery of the valley.   The following are postcards owned by the Leonard Ervine Manley family which show Chauncey in it's heyday around the years 1900-1940.

Postcard photo generously donated to this website by Kathleen Manley from her parents estate:

Leonard Ervine Manley
Born September 12, 1913
Died November 13, 1996
Buried Greenlawn Cemetery, Nelsonville, Athens County, Ohio

Eve Marie Powell (Manley) (Pence)
She was born in Springfield, Clark County, Ohio Nov. 16, 1913

Chauncey also had the county poorhouse / infirmary.  

Click here to see the list of directors and patients  from 1858-1913.
County Infirmary Directors and Patients

Click on table below to view more postcards of Chauncey provided by Kathleen and a tornado devastation photo from Tim:

Click here to See a website of the class of 1953

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