About
History of Historic Roscoe Village
From Canal Port to Entrepreneurial Vision
Historic Roscoe Village exists today because of both 19th‑century enterprise and 20th‑century entrepreneurship.
Historic Roscoe Village did not appear overnight as a destination. It began as a working canal port, declined with the end of canal commerce, and was later revived through local vision and entrepreneurial leadership.
A Canal Town Built on Commerce
In 1816, merchant James Calder laid out a small settlement on the west side of the Muskingum River. First known as Caldersburgh, it gave area farmers a trading place without crossing the river into Coshocton.
Renamed Roscoe in 1830 to honor English writer and abolitionist William Roscoe, the village surged when the Ohio & Erie Canal opened that same year. On August 21, 1830, the canal boat Monticello arrived, and Roscoe soon became one of the leading wheat ports along the 308‑mile waterway.
Blacksmiths forged tools. Weavers produced cloth. Doctors made house calls. Tavern keepers welcomed travelers. Merchants supplied daily needs.
Commerce shaped the streets.
Connection sustained daily life.
Community created resilience.
Decline and Dormancy
As railroads replaced canal traffic in the late 19th century, Roscoe’s commercial prominence faded. The devastating flood of 1913 accelerated the decline. Buildings aged, and economic activity shifted elsewhere. What had once been a thriving canal port became quiet, worn, and largely underused.
A Painting — and an Entrepreneur
In the early 1960s, Coshocton industrialist Edward E. Montgomery encountered Dean Cornwell’s mural Canal Days, which depicted the vitality of a 19th‑century canal town.
Montgomery was himself an innovator and entrepreneur. As founder of Edmont Glove Company, he developed and patented processes that transformed cotton work gloves into durable coated protective gear used nationwide, reflecting the same practical ingenuity and enterprise that had once defined Roscoe’s canal economy.
Looking at the mural, he asked a different kind of business question:
What if the village could live again where it once stood?
In 1961, Edward and his wife Frances purchased the 1840 Toll House — once home to toll collector Jacob Welsh. That building became the first restored structure and opened to the public in 1968. From that beginning, the restoration of Historic Roscoe Village took shape.
Restoration as Purpose
The Montgomerys did not restore Roscoe as a static exhibit. They revived a district. Under their leadership, canal‑era buildings were reclaimed and adapted into shops, educational spaces, gardens, and interpretive sites, expressing confidence in place and in Roscoe’s continuing relevance.
The same entrepreneurial spirit that built Edmont helped fuel the restoration of Roscoe.
Commerce had once built the village.
Vision and community commitment brought it back.
Stewarded for the Future
Today, Historic Roscoe Village is stewarded by the not‑for‑profit Roscoe Village Foundation, which provides long‑term preservation leadership for the district. The Foundation’s work safeguards architectural integrity, historical interpretation, and the cohesive identity of the village as a whole.
Roscoe’s story is not only about a canal town founded in 1830. It is about a community that chose stewardship over disappearance.
Commerce built it.
Entrepreneurship restored it.
Stewardship sustains it.
