Geographic Setting
Royer Chapel and Cemetery quietly sits on a gently sloping one-acre parcel of land in Franklin Township, Coshocton County, Ohio. It is located on Township Road 280, about 650 feet east of State Route 83 and approximately eight miles south of the city of Coshocton. The property is enclaved by AEP land, which is leased by ODNR as the Conesville Hunting Area.
From a surveyor's perspective, Franklin Township, one of Coshocton County's southern tier townships, is described as Township 4, Range 6, of the former U.S. Military Lands. Royer Chapel and Cemetery is tucked in the southeast quadrant of Section 12 in the township. The property's southern border follows the section line between sections 12 and 19.
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The land that the Royer Chapel and Cemetery occupies was once part of the properties owned by Nicholas and Ann Royer and Margaret Factor (widow of Mathias Factor). The Royer family donated the southeastern corner of their property on December 19, 1856 to Archbishop John D. Purcell of the Catholic Diocese of Cincinnati. Four days later, Margaret Factor donated the southwestern corner of her property to the Diocese. The 1872 map shows the property line between the Royer and Hageny (formerly Factor) farms bisecting the chapel/cemetery grounds. The label "Cath Ch" is on the Royer side, while "Cem" is on the Factor side.
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The map to the left is from the Atlas of Townships of Coshocton County, Ohio, circa 1938 (indexed for the Coshocton County Genealogical Society, 1999). Royer Chapel and Cemetery is circled in blue. The map predates the present-day alignment of State Route 83 (formerly State Route 76). The western leg of what is now Township Road 280 (not labeled on map) once continued west into the town of Wills Creek. The Royer Chapel and Cemetery's access driveway was once a road that extended to the southeast.
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Historic aerial photography from 1940 (from the Coshocton County Soil Conservation District) shows State Route 76, now State Route 83, in its present alignment, suggesting the rerouted highway was built in 1939 or 1940.
The map to the left is from the 1872 Atlas of Coshocton County, Ohio (C.O. Titus, 1872), based on the surveys by and under the direction of D.J. Lake, county engineer. Royer Chapel and Cemetery is circled in blue. The site was located at the convergence of township roads "181," "222," and "241." The western leg of present-day Township Road 280 follows road 181, while the northern leg of present-day TR 280 generally follows the alignment of road 222. The Royer Chapel access driveway, which currently dead-ends just east of the cemetery, once continued in a southeastward direction as road 241. Notice the acreage listed as "79 1/2," factoring the piece parceled to Church.
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Interestingly, this map shows road 222 intersecting roads 181 and 241, east of the cemetery. Upon exploring the area just to the east, it is evident the former right-of-way existed. A trace remnant of the three-way intersection of 181 / 222 / 241 is also discernable within the AEP property.
Muskingum River Watershed
Royer Chapel is located in the lower portion of the 853-square mile Wills Creek Watershed, which is part of the much larger Muskingum River Watershed. The Muskingum’s drainage basin covers just over 8,000 square miles, making it the largest watershed wholly contained within Ohio’s borders (about 20 percent of the entire state). It drains areas as far north as Mansfield, southern Medina and Summit counties, and northern Ashland County. The Muskingum River is a 112-mile-long tributary of the Ohio River. It forms at the confluence of the Tuscarawas and Walhonding rivers in Coshocton. Its meandering course flows in a south to southeast direction through Zanesville and McConnelsville before emptying into the Ohio at Marietta. Notable tributaries that flow into the Muskingum include the 92-mile Wills Creek, the 42.6-mile Wakatomika Creek, the 40-mile Hocking River, and the 29.2-mile Moxahala Creek. The Tuscarawas River is the basin’s longest tributary at 130 miles, while the Walhonding measures at 23.5 miles. Additional tributaries within the Muskingum’s basin include the 81.7-mile Killbuck Creek, the 53-mile Kokosing River, and the 40-mile Mohican River, among many others (the confluence of the Kokosing and Mohican forms the Walhonding).
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The Muskingum River Watershed – via the Ohio River Watershed – is part of the 1,245,000-square-mile Mississippi River basin, which drains roughly 41% of the contiguous United States and small portions of Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada. The Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles downstream of New Orleans, Louisiana. To put into perspective, the small trickling intermittent streams that rise in the hills of Coshocton County’s Franklin Township are part of the same drainage basin as the tributaries that flow from Yellowstone and Glacier national parks in Wyoming and Montana, respectively.
The Muskingum River Watershed is located within the Allegheny Plateau, a physiographic section of the Appalachian Plateau, which is situated along the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. In Ohio, the Allegheny Plateau covers much of the eastern portion of the state (its western extent roughly follows a line formed by US Route 23 and Interstates 71 and 90 between Portsmouth in Scioto County and Conneaut in Ashtabula County). The Allegheny Plateau is a large, dissected plateau, meaning it has withstood severe erosion over (geologic) time and is characterized by sharp relief. The Allegheny Plateau is further divided into a glaciated section and an unglaciated section. In Ohio, the glaciated portion encompasses the westernmost and northern sections of the plateau. The
Map of the Muskingum River Watershed. Map modified from Ohio EPA by Brian George (2021)
Wills Creek and Wills Creek Dam
UNDER CONSTRUCTION --- COMING SOON!!!
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present-day topography in this area was greatly altered by the last glaciation – the same glaciation that carved out the Great Lakes. The intactness of the unglaciated portion can be attributed to the more-resistant sandstone and shale bedrock found in the higher elevations of northeast Ohio. These bedrock layers were better able to withstand the southward-advancing glacial ice, thus greatly reducing how far into southeast Ohio and the Allegheny Plateau the ice progressed. Topography of the plateau’s glaciated portion is characterized by low relief and flatter landscapes, while in southeast Ohio, where glacial ice was not present, the topography is increasingly rugged, and relief may range between 200 and 400 feet. The Muskingum River’s drainage basin is bisected by the glacial divide.
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In the early years of settlement and into statehood, the Muskingum River was a difficult waterway to navigate. Springtime flooding and swift currents made waterborne travel hazardous, while extremely low water levels during summer months often made it unnavigable. In 1825, construction of the Ohio & Erie Canal began (fully completed in 1833). The 308-mile-long canal connected Lake Erie at Cleveland with the Ohio River at Portsmouth. Much of the canal paralleled the Cuyahoga, Tuscarawas, (upper) Muskingum, and Scioto rivers. The better part of the lower Muskingum River, however, between Marietta and Zanesville, was not included in the state’s original 1822 canal survey due to the valley’s rugged terrain (and political reasons). Residents of southeast Ohio were disappointed the initial canal system would not utilize the entire length of the Muskingum. After much lobbying to the state legislature, the Muskingum River Improvement project was born. The project was designed to improve the river’s capacity to accommodate waterborne traffic. Construction commenced in 1836 and was completed in 1841. Shallow-draft navigation along 93 miles of the Muskingum was achieved with the construction of 11 hand-operated sandstone locks, rock-filled timber-crib dams, and bypass canals. The system helped transport goods via steam-powered vessels from Muskingum Valley ports to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and New Orleans via the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. At the northern end, just north of Zanesville (near Dresden), a three-mile-long feeder canal connected the waterway to the Ohio & Erie Canal, allowing for the movement of goods to Akron and Cleveland. The Muskingum River Navigation System was the longest inland waterway in Ohio and one of the first slack-water navigation systems in the United States. In 1844, the new transportation route was the final leg of Nicholas and Ann (Lego) Royer’s (and family) immigration journey from France.
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In the 1800s, the Muskingum River Valley – like many areas in Ohio – endured intensive deforestation as early settlers cleared land for logging and agricultural purposes. As a result, the landscape became more and more susceptible to soil erosion, uncontrolled water runoff, and flooding. Because of the enormity of the Muskingum’s watershed, rainfall across the entire basin can lead to major flooding events in the lower portion of the watershed (where the unglaciated terrain is more rugged, and valleys are narrower). Historically, significant flooding events in the Muskingum watershed occurred throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, including floods in 1832, 1835, 1860, 1884, 1898, 1907, 1910, and the Great Flood of 1913, which devastated much of Ohio.
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Flooding within the watershed often resulted in property loss, infrastructure damage, economic losses, and even fatalities. In the mid-to-late 1800s, as Ohio’s railroad network was expanding, the state was not appropriating considerable resources to canal maintenance. The Muskingum River Valley was not easily accessible to early rail lines. After demanding the state government take care of necessary repairs along the Muskingum River, it was ultimately the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who stepped in to assume responsibilities of the navigation system. Between 1880 and 1911, the deteriorating locks and dams were rebuilt. The investment was short-lived. Over a four-day period in March of 1913, torrential rainfall across the entire state resulted in heavy tributary runoff and severe flood conditions. The flood decimated Ohio’s canal infrastructure, including the Muskingum Navigation System. Near Akron, canal lock gates along the Ohio & Erie Canal were dynamited to help alleviate flooding. The Flood of 1913 claimed at least 428 lives in Ohio, destroyed over 20,000 homes (damaged thousands more), caused wide-spread property damage, and remains the state’s largest weather disaster.
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The Muskingum reopened to boat traffic in 1918 – after five years of repair. However, the economic impact it would reap for southeast Ohio would forever pale in comparison to its first 70 years of operation. In 1958, the State of Ohio again assumed ownership and operation of the system for recreational purposes. Today, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources manages the system as Muskingum River State Park.
In 1933 – largely in response to the Flood of 1913 – the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) was formed to address and prevent catastrophic flooding within the basin. To regulate flow of water into the Muskingum River and reduce the impacts of flooding, 14 dams and reservoirs were constructed within the watershed. The system was designed to hold water to the height of each spillway in the event of a five-day rainfall. Its maximum capacity can withstand storm 36 percent greater than the catastrophic 1913 flood.
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