Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Martins Ferry, OH

Martins Ferry proudly calls itself "Ohio's First Settlement": it is the oldest European settlement in Ohio, settled at least as early as 1779 and made permanent as Norristown in 1785, nearly a decade before Marietta.

Few American towns have had as many names — Martins Ferry was successively known as Hoglinstown, Mercertown, Norristown (1785), Jefferson (1795), Martinsville (1835), and Martin's Ferry (1865).

Absalom Martin platted the town of Jefferson in 1795 and operated the ferry that gave the town its name; his son Ebenezer Martin redesigned it with a grid of streets in 1835, much of which survives today.

The town was incorporated in 1865, chartered as a city in 1885, and at some point the apostrophe was quietly dropped from "Martin's Ferry."

Martins Ferry is the most populous city in Belmont County and sits on the Ohio River directly across from Wheeling, West Virginia, in the Wheeling metropolitan area.

The city had a population of 6,260 at the 2020 census, living in 2,811 households — less than half its peak of 14,729 residents in 1940, when it was a booming rail hub and river port.

Revolutionary War heroine Betty Zane, who saved Fort Henry in Wheeling by carrying gunpowder hidden in her dress, is buried in Martins Ferry's Walnut Grove Pioneer Cemetery, and the city honors her with the annual Betty Zane Frontier Days festival.

Martins Ferry is the hometown of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Wright, who wrote the famous poem "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio," and the James Wright Poetry Festival was held in the city from 1981 to 2007.

The small city produced an outsized share of sports legends, including Pro Football Hall of Fame kicker Lou Groza, Basketball Hall of Famer John Havlicek, and Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro and his brother Joe.

The Martins Ferry City School District educates roughly 1,488 students, with Martins Ferry High School serving the city from a single campus.