About Shadyside, Ohio

Nestled among the rolling hills of Belmont County in southeastern Ohio and bordered by the Ohio River, Shadyside is a charming community and a burgeoning center of education, commerce, and industry. The community’s beginnings date back to 1799. Incorporated in December 1912, Shadyside has long been known as “The Garden Spot of the Ohio Valley.”

Shadyside is a very special place where all are welcome and none remain strangers. While Shadyside is geographically small, it holds a large piece of its population’s heart. This village has an energetic constituency that demonstrates Good Samaritan qualities in daily life. The people of Shadyside pull together in times of hardship and emergencies to care for each other and their village. Neighbor helping neighbor is the norm and multigenerational respect is evident in daily life and community gatherings. These citizens take civic pride to the next level, and through their efforts, have fostered and maintained a gracious and much loved hometown.

Historical Shadyside

The following historical account details how Shadyside was established and named:

“The area embracing Shadyside and immediate vicinity is extremely rich in historical lore, forming as it does part of the gateway to the Northwest Territory and assuming noteworthy significance and importance in the growth and development of our country.

In the early accounts of invasions by white men is recorded the trip of George Washington and his group of surveyors who came down the Ohio River to Fort Dille and crossed into Round Bottom, on the West Virginia side. A tablet erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution on State Route 7, north of Powhatan, commemorates this expedition by Washington and his men. It was at Fort Dille, opposite Moundsville, that the first settlement in this vicinity was established in 1793.

The land on which Shadyside is now located was first owned by John Hopkins, of New York, 172 years ago – 13 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

In 1799, government surveyors came to Fort Henry – now Wheeling – to survey the rich lands in Eastern Ohio. In the party was David McElherren, a young Englishman who took for his pay 2200 acres of land lying along the river and extending from what is now South Bellaire to Wegee Creek.

McElherren laid out the town which was to grow into the present community of Shadyside and helped establish the Belmont county seat just over the northern corporation line in what today is Avondale.

The first court session of Belmont County was held November 24, 1801, with McElherren, Jacob Repshire, and David Lockwood on the bench and 23 men serving on the grand jury. The courthouse was Judge Repshire’s log cabin and the jail was the barn in the rear of his home.

Political lobbying for the removal of the county seat to Newellstown began in June 1803. By the simple expedient of changing the name of Newellstown to St. Clairsville, in honor of Governor St. Clair, the latter’s consent was gained and in 1804 all county records were transferred to St. Clairsville.

With the coming of white settlers in increasing numbers, the early history of this area became studded with familiar names borne by present-day inhabitants – Ambler, Cochran, Futhey, Grant, Heath, Hutchens, Rodefer, Sammons, and Smith, among others.

Shadyside acquired its own name quite unintentionally late in the nineteenth century after James Leisure purchased the Robert Hutchens farm. Leisure planted evergreen trees along the turnpike bordering his land and hung up a small whiteboard on which he painted the word “Shadyside.” In 1879, when the narrow-gauge railroad came through this valley, a small platform was laid opposite Leisure’s gateway. The train, thereafter, stopped at “Shadyside Station” and thus did a pioneer resident unwittingly name the town.

Shadyside is located in one of the country’s finest coal regions, with some of the nation’s largest mines being located nearby. Large deposits of salt, as well as concentrated brine, also underlie that part of Belmont County to the south of Shadyside.

The growth of Shadyside on all levels of community life has been especially pronounced during the past two decades. New school buildings, a new municipal building, a swimming pool, one new church edifice and another under construction, many additional private homes and new business establishments all stand as monuments to the progressiveness of a citizenry which has made Shadyside one of the most attractive residential areas in the Ohio Valley where the accent is heavy on gracious living.”

Excerpt taken from An Intimate Glimpse of Shadyside: Garden Spot of the Ohio Valley “Where Good Living Is A Habit” published by the Shadyside Board of Trade (1962)