Adams Township, Darke County

How Adams Township, Darke County began

Adams Township was erected in March 1819 from the east end of Greenville Township and the south end of Wayne, and takes its name from Major George Adams, who had served under Harmar and Wayne and built a small mill on Greenville Creek soon after the War of 1812. The second permanent settlement in Darke County was made here in 1808 by Abraham Studabaker, who built a block house opposite the later Gettysburg. The villages are Gettysburg, laid out in 1842 by a colony from Adams County, Pennsylvania, and part of Bradford on the eastern line, where two railroads of the Pennsylvania system divide. Bear's Mill, built in 1849 on Greenville Creek, is the township's National Register landmark; the township had 3,343 residents in 2020.

Incorporated 1819, by Darke County's organizing government.

Where the name comes from

Named for Major George Adams, a veteran of the armies of Harmar and Wayne, who settled by Greenville Creek soon after the War of 1812 and built a small flouring mill; the settlement took the name 'Adams' Mills' and the township was named for him when organized in 1819 (Beers 1880; Wilson 1914).

Before the town

The 1880 county history says 'the great thoroughfare of the Indians between Piqua and the Whitewater towns' ran almost before Abraham Studabaker's door on Greenville Creek, and that Indians called at his clearing and block house during the years 1808 to 1811; Tecumseh, Little Turtle and Black Hoof are named there as frequent visitors, and Tecumseh and his brother are said to have moved away from near Greenville to escape the whisky sold at Azor Scribner's trading post at Minatown. These are the county historian's recollections from pioneers, written about seventy years later, and no village or mound in the township itself is recorded. Nearly all warriors left the region in the fall of 1811. The land was ceded by the Treaty of Greenville (1795).

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Miami.

Timeline

1. 1808 — Abraham Studabaker settles with his wife on Greenville Creek, on section 25 opposite the later Gettysburg, the second permanent settlement in Darke County; Indian traffic between Piqua and the Whitewater towns passes his door.
2. 1811 — Studabaker builds a block house and moves his family into it as Indian hostility rises before the War of 1812.
3. 1814 — David Studabaker is born in the block house, the first white child born in the township.
4. c. 1815 — Major George Adams, who had served under Harmar and Wayne, builds a small flouring mill on Greenville Creek; the settlement is called Adams' Mills.
5. 1816 — Armstrong Campbell and William Stewart settle in the opening cleared by Studabaker, who moves to Greenville the same year.
6. 1816-1817 — William Cunningham, Samuel Robinson, Barton Fairchild, Thomas McCune and others settle near the future New Harrison.
7. 1819 — Adams Township is established and named for early settler Major Adams.
8. 1827-1831 — A colony of emigrants from Adams County, Pennsylvania, settles in the township, the people who found Gettysburg.
9. 1830 — The first township schoolhouse is built on section 30, now the site of the cemetery near Gettysburg; the census counts 529 people in the township.
10. c. 1834 — The Lutherans build the first church in the township, on the pike south of Greenville Creek in section 36.
11. 1837 — Samuel Robinson platts New Harrison; by 1845 it has about a dozen families, a Methodist church, two taverns and a physician.
12. 1838 — In June Van Buren Township is formed from the south end of Adams, leaving about thirty-five square miles.
13. 1840s — Construction begins on a gristmill along Greenville Creek in the township's southwest corner, midway between Greenville and Gettysburg.
14. 1842 — Gettysburg is platted by John Hershey and named for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; it is incorporated in 1866.
15. 1849 — Pennsylvania native Gabriel Bear completes and opens the mill, later known as Bear's Mill, after purchasing the unfinished structure from contractor Manning Hart.
16. 1870 — Adams Township has 2,201 inhabitants, up from 529 in 1830; Gettysburg shipped over 200,000 bushels of grain in the last season counted.
17. 1975-06-10 — Bear's Mill is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
18. 2020 — The township has 3,343 residents in the 2020 census.

Stories

A miller who crossed the ocean for the right stone

Manning Hart, a local contractor, began building a gristmill on Greenville Creek in the 1840s. Gabriel Bear, a Pennsylvanian, bought it before it was finished and opened it in 1849. When the locally made millstones proved faulty, Bear went to France for stones considered the best in the world. Bear's Mill is a water-powered gristmill, the oldest existing industrial building in Darke County, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 10, 1975.

A major left for dead

Major George Adams, for whom the township is named, had served with Harmar in the 1790 campaign against the Maumee towns, where he took several bullets and was left for dead on the field. When the army retreated his comrades carried him along so his body would not be mutilated; at the first halt they dug a grave, saw faint signs of life, and worked through the night over him. The next day they dug another grave, then another, day after day until the troops reached Fort Washington, and after weeks of insensibility he recovered. He served in Wayne's campaigns of 1793 to 1795, noticed the mill site on Greenville Creek while scouting, and came back to build a mill there after the War of 1812. His mill ground coarse meal, flour had to be bolted by hand, and a little grocery selling whisky and tobacco made 'Adams' Mills' a place for shooting matches, quoit throwing and the occasional fight.

The wolf and the frozen ax

In the severe winter of the early 1810s Abraham Studabaker set out for the mill at Milton on the Stillwater, a two-day trip, leaving his wife and children in the woods; he had dressed a hog the day before. In the night a pack of wolves gathered round the cabin and the family heard a smothered yell, then a chorus of snarling that stopped all at once. In the morning Mrs. Studabaker found a large wolf dead within four feet of the door, its tongue frozen fast to the ax used to cut up the hog. The county historian supposed it had licked the bloody, frosted blade, cried out, and been killed by the rest of the pack; wolves, he says, never came near the house again. It is a pioneer family tradition, set down in 1880.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Every historic place in Darke County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Bradford Village64% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Greenville City35% of residentsGreenville Creek (primary, ~78%) blended with 8 wells
• Gettysburg Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Sherwood Forest MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Northtowne Communities Llc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

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