Amanda Township, Allen County

How Amanda Township, Allen County began

Amanda Township, in the southwest of Allen County, was 'the first to fall into the possession of the American pioneer' in the county, according to the 1885 county history, with settlers arriving as early as 1817 -- Andrew Russell, Peter Diltz and William Van Ausdall among them. It takes its name from Fort Amanda, the War of 1812 supply depot that Colonel Robert Pogue's troops built in 1812 and named for his wife (or daughter, by another account), though the fort itself stood just across the county line in Auglaize County. The township organized under Mercer County authority in 1830, before Allen County itself existed, and the village of Amanda was platted in 1832.

Settled 1817 (Andrew Russell, Peter Diltz, William Van Ausdall), platted village of Amanda platted 1832 by Samuel Washburn, incorporated township organized 1830 under Mercer County authority, with thirteen eligible voters present, by Samuel Baxter (clerk), Daniel Hoak (justice of the peace).

Where the name comes from

Amanda Township is named for Fort Amanda, the War of 1812 supply depot built in the fall of 1812 by troops under Lieutenant Colonel Robert Pogue and named for a woman in his family -- his wife by one account, his daughter Hannah Amanda by another. The fort itself stood on the west bank of the Auglaize River in what is now Logan Township, Auglaize County, not within the boundaries of Amanda Township, Allen County; the township took the name from its proximity to the fort and the road leading to it.

Before the town

Amanda Township was, per the 1885 county history, 'the first [ground] to fall into the possession of the American pioneer' in Allen County, with white settlement beginning in 1817 -- the same year as the Treaty of the Maumee Rapids that set aside the Hog Creek Shawnee reservation elsewhere in the county -- suggesting this ground was among the first opened by that treaty's cessions. No Shawnee village, mound or other Native site specific to the township's own ground was found in the sources checked; the township's name and early identity are tied instead to Fort Amanda, the War of 1812 depot just across the county line that itself was built on ground the Shawnee, Wyandot and Ottawa had used before 1812. Allen County's wider record includes the Hog Creek reservation and the 1817 and 1831 treaties.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1812 — Fall: Troops under Lieutenant Colonel Robert Pogue build Fort Amanda, a War of 1812 supply depot on the Auglaize River just south of the future township, naming it for a woman in Pogue's family.
2. 1815 — Fort Amanda is abandoned after the war; its buildings are later repurposed by settlers.
3. 1817 — Andrew Russell, Peter Diltz and William Van Ausdall become the township's first settlers.
4. 1820-1829 — Henry Hartel, Dye Sunderland, William Stewart and George Kephart arrive, building out the township's early community.
5. 1830 — Amanda Township organizes under Mercer County authority (Allen County not yet fully organized), with thirteen eligible voters present; Samuel Baxter serves as clerk and Daniel Hoak as justice of the peace.
6. 1830 — Baptists organize a congregation in the township.
7. 1832 — Samuel Washburn, who married the widow of early settler Andrew Russell, plats the village of Amanda.
8. 1841 — The Baptist congregation completes its first church building.
9. 1842 — Armstrong Village develops around a newly built flour mill.
10. 1847 — Methodists build a church in the township at a cost of about $1,000, completed by 1848.
11. 1915 — A granite memorial obelisk is erected at the Fort Amanda site, replacing the vanished original fort structures.

Stories

Named for a fort across the line

Amanda Township's name has nothing to do with anything inside its own boundaries. In the fall of 1812, with the United States at war and Detroit just surrendered to the British, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Pogue's troops built a supply depot on the west bank of the Auglaize River, part of General William Henry Harrison's chain of forts protecting the Ohio frontier. They named it Fort Amanda, for a woman in the colonel's family -- his wife, by one account, or his daughter Hannah Amanda, by another. The fort itself, abandoned in 1815 and marked since 1915 by a granite memorial obelisk, stands in Logan Township, Auglaize County, not in Allen County at all. But its name traveled: when the township just north of the old fort organized in 1830, it took the name Amanda, close enough to the old depot to share its identity without sharing its ground.

The first ground taken

The 1885 county history makes a specific claim for Amanda Township: that it was 'the first to fall into the possession of the American pioneer' anywhere in what became Allen County. Andrew Russell, Peter Diltz and William Van Ausdall arrived in 1817, the same year the Treaty of the Maumee Rapids opened the Hog Creek Shawnee reservation lands to the east, suggesting this stretch of the county was among the very earliest ceded and settled. The three men's names do not appear often elsewhere in the county's early record, but one piece of their story survived: Samuel Washburn, who came later, married Andrew Russell's widow and in 1832 platted the village of Amanda on land tied to that first 1817 settlement, fifteen years after Russell had first cleared it.

Photographs

Local history sources: genealogytrails.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Spencerville Village36% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Lima City31% of residentsAuglaize River and Ottawa River, stored in city upground reservoirs
• Cridersville Village14% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Delphos City9% of residentsLittle Auglaize River, stored in city reservoir
• Elida Village8% of residentsAuglaize River and Ottawa River, stored in city upground reservoirs
• Brightstar Lima MHP1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

High-hazard dams (2)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Elections for office

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

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-07-14
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-08-20

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