Tablertown (Kilvert)

Tablertown is located in Rome township near Stewart. It was originally given the name Tablertown in the 1830s on account of its founder Michael Tabler, who was the son of a plantation owner originally from Virginia. At first, he moved to West Virginia with his six children as well as their mother, Hannah, who was a slave. After emancipating them there, he moved them all to Southeast Ohio and purchased 50 acres of land in 1836 which became the foundation of Tablertown. About forty years later, as the railroad was being constructed nearby, the area came to be known more officially as Kilvert after a coal mine operator, Sam Kilvert, named the area after himself. Following a cyclone that came through the area in 1937, which badly damaged many of the homes and buildings in the area, the village experienced a continued decline in population. Tablertown currently consists of a community center, a church, a cemetery (which includes the graves of Michael Tabler and many of his children) as well as a handful of homes.