Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Middleport, OH

Middleport is a village in Meigs County, Ohio, along the Ohio River at the mouth of Leading Creek, and it is the largest village in Meigs County.

Revolutionary War veteran Lieutenant James Smith brought his family down the Ohio River in April 1797 and landed at the mouth of Leading Creek, making the first settlement at what became Middleport.

The village was founded during the 1820s as Sheffield, and through its history it has also used the names Coalport and Salisbury; Middleport and Sheffield consolidated into a single village in 1859.

The name Middleport comes from the village's position on the Ohio River halfway between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati — in the 1840s, steamboats departing both cities at the same time would meet here.

Among Middleport's earliest industries was, surprisingly, a cotton mill, built despite the lack of cotton production anywhere in the vicinity.

Three Middleport buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the John Downing Jr. House, the William H. Grant House, and the Middleport Public Library.

Middleport was the home of Walter "Mother" Watson, a Major League Baseball pitcher.

Middleport had a population of 2,208 people at the 2020 census, and it counted 1,089 households in the 2010 census.

The village covers about 1.90 square miles, and Dave Diles Park sits on Mill Street along the Middleport riverfront.

Middleport is one of the four historic Ohio River villages of Meigs County — with Pomeroy, Racine, and Syracuse — whose economies were built on river commerce, coal, and salt.