Michael Uhrich, Sr. founded Uhrich's Mill on this site in 1806 after emigrating from Pennsylvania in 1804, and he became one of the first County Commissioners when Tuscarawas County was formed in February 1808. In 1833, the same year Mill Township was organized, Michael Uhrich, Jr. platted the town of Waterford, which became Uhrichsville about six years later. During the Ohio-Erie Canal period, Uhrich's Mill, with four wheels for sawing wood, milling wheat, and grinding corn, became the focal point for nearly all grain produced in the Stillwater Valley and shipped to Cleveland markets by canal. Clay, one of Tuscarawas County's vast natural resources, later supported more than 30 clay plants throughout the county, producing brick, flue liners, and sewer pipes; at the industry's height, these plants made nearly one-fourth of Ohio's clay products. The sewer pipe industry declined with the advent of the wide use of plastic pipe, and to celebrate this heritage, citizens of Uhrichsville and Dennison held the National Clay Week Festival from the late 1940s until 2001.