Antrim Township, Wyandot County

How Antrim Township, Wyandot County began

Antrim Township, in southeastern Wyandot County, was first organized as a township in Crawford County in 1822 and took its present thirty-two-section form on June 2, 1845, when Wyandot County's first commissioners attached an eight-section fraction of Grand Prairie, Marion County. It holds part of Nevada village and the crossroads community of Wyandot, where Col. M. H. Kirby entered 640 acres in 1820 and John Kirby built the township's first house that same year. Germans John, Jacob and Adam Coon, John Heckathorn, Jacob Snyder and Valentine Mutchler, who squatted on the Delaware Reserve in spring 1819 at a spot later called 'Germantown,' are recorded as the township's earliest white settlers. The Swartz Covered Bridge, a National Register-listed span, stands in the township northwest of Wyandot.

Settled 1819, incorporated 1845-06-02, by first organized as a Crawford County township in 1822; given its present boundaries by Wyandot County's first Commissioners in 1845, attaching an eight-section fraction of Grand Prairie, Marion County.

Where the name comes from

No source found states why the township was called Antrim. Wikipedia notes only that it is the only Antrim Township in Ohio, and the 1884 county history does not address the name.

Before the town

The 1913 county history says the greater part of Antrim Township lay within the old Wyandot reservation, and the 1884 history places the reservation line across the northern part of sections 31 to 33 and north through sections 27, 22, 15, 10 and 3; the early white settlement at Wyandot village sat 'south and east of the Reservation line.' The Wyandots lived on the reserve until their removal in 1843 and its lands were sold from 1845. No Wyandot town, trail or burial in Antrim itself is named in the sources checked. For the reservation, the 1817 and 1842 treaties and removal.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Swartz Covered Bridge (other) — northwest of Wyandot, Antrim Township, on County Road 130, listed NRHP 1976 (not a Native site; included here as the township's one NRHP listing) (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1819 — Jacob, John and Adam Coon, John Heckathorn, Jacob Snyder and Valentine Mutchler, German settlers from Pickaway County, squat on the 'Delaware Reserve' in spring; the spot later called 'Germantown' is the first attempted white settlement, and John Kirby builds the township's first house, a hewed-log structure, on land Col. M. H. Kirby enters the next year.
2. 1820 — Col. M. H. Kirby enters 640 acres where the village of Wyandot now stands, later enlarging the farm to 1,200 acres; John Kirby becomes the township's first merchant, with a store in the village.
3. 1821 — Abner Jurey, an infant, dies in August, the first death recorded in the township, and is buried in the Macedona graveyard.
4. 1822 — The township is first organized under Crawford County; Rebecca Welsh, daughter of Zachariah and Hannah Welsh, is born, the first white child recorded in it.
5. 1825 — David Bibler builds the township's first grist mill (1825-26) on the Sandusky River east of Wyandot, and also keeps its first tavern.
6. 1827 — The first schoolhouse, a cabin, is built in the village of Wyandot (1827-28); Thomas T. Thompson, later a mission teacher, is the first teacher.
7. 1835 — A Methodist Episcopal society of few members is organized at Wyandot; it had met in the old log schoolhouse since about 1820, and builds the township's first church south of the village in 1838.
8. 1839 — Col. Kirby moves from Columbus to his Wyandot farm; in 1843 he is appointed Receiver of the Northwestern Land Office.
9. 1845 — On June 2 Wyandot County's first commissioners attach the eight-section fraction of Grand Prairie, Marion County, to Antrim, giving it its present thirty-two sections.
10. 1852 — Jonathan Ayres and George Garrett lay out the village of Nevada, part of which lies in Antrim Township.
11. 1858 — The United Presbyterian denomination builds a frame church 40 by 60 feet, bought in 1884 by the Methodist Episcopal Church for $1,300.
12. 1880 — The Swartz Covered Bridge, a Howe truss span, is built on what is now County Road 130 northwest of Wyandot.
13. 1976 — The Swartz Covered Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 8.

Stories

Germantown on the reserve

In the spring of 1819 a party of Germans from Pickaway County, Jacob, John and Adam Coon, John Heckathorn, Jacob Snyder and Valentine Mutchler, squatted on what the 1884 county history calls the 'Delaware Reserve' in the area that became Antrim Township. The county historian believed them to be the first white men to try to settle there, and their location was afterward known as 'Germantown.' That year John Kirby built the township's first house, a hewed-log structure, on land that Col. M. H. Kirby entered in 1820. Jacob Coon stayed: the history says he lived on the same farm in the southern part of the township for sixty years. Heckathorn moved on and, by one claim, settled in Marseilles Township about 1828.

The colonel who moved to Wyandot

Col. M. H. Kirby entered 640 acres in 1820 on the site of the village of Wyandot, in what became Antrim Township, and kept adding to it until he owned 1,200 acres. He lived in Columbus and moved to the farm in 1839. In 1843 he was appointed Receiver of the Northwestern Land Office. The county historians count him among the principal settlers before the county was organized in 1845, and note that settlements spread rapidly afterward.

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

Every historic place in Wyandot County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Nevada Village100% of residentsSandusky River (via Outhwaite & Riley up-ground reservoirs)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-03-11

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