Ohio Township, now Ohioville Borough, was formed in 1805 from part of South Beaver Township. As early as 1799, a ferry run by Marylander, Thomas Smith, transported passengers from the south, or Georgetown, side of the Ohio River to the north, or Ohio Township side. An early edition of Zadok Cramer's Navigator noted that near the ferry, "a spring rises from the bed of the river, throwing out a bituminous oil, similar to what is called seneca oil, supposed to proceed from a bed of mineral coal embowelled beneath the river." This oil, which according to Cramer, could be smelled in Georgetown when the river was low, would play an important role later in the development of the township. An interesting, if less profitable attraction near the river, also near Smith's Ferry, was a number of Indian pictographs. Unfortunately, they are now under water.
In 1828, a post office was established at the village of Ohioville, with Joseph Dawson its first postmaster. Another was established at Smith's Ferry in 1834.
Blackhawk village, on the South Beaver Township Line, had its own post office after 1837. New Salem United Presbyterian Church, nearby, dates back to 1798 or earlier, having been founded at the same time as Mount Pleasant Church in Big Beaver (near Darlington).
Four Mile United Presbyterian Church was founded in 1811 on Tuscarawas Road. Originally named Four Mile Square Church, the name derives from the four mile square section of land surveyed by Alexander McClean in Depreciation District No. 1.
Another early village in the borough was Fairview, site of the present-day Fairview Grange. Esther Post Office served the villagers after 1894.
In 1852, Thomas Elverson and Samuel Pollock began the manufacture of pottery, which they called "Rockingham and yellow ware," in the township.
Having already lost some territory to Brighton Township in 1816, Ohio Township lost more with the establishment of Glasgow Borough in 1854 and Industry Township in 1856.
Around 1860 began the exploitation of the oil lands which Zadok Cramer had noted so many years before. By 1876, the Ohio Township Business Directory included in Caldwell's Centennial Atlas of Beaver County listed quite a few "oil producers." The wells were small, however, and the fields eventually declined. The population declined as well, going from 1,376 in 1880 to 939 in 1900.
Smith's Ferry, center of the oil boom, has almost completely disappeared. Two houses and the former Rockport school remain from the oil days.
Still more industry was lost in 1906 with the establishment of Midland Borough out of parts of Ohio and Industry Township. The twentieth century has seen a resurgence however. In 1960, Ohioville township was incorporated as a borough; in 1970, the population stood at 3,918. Ohioville Borough is part of the Western Beaver School District.