Aurelius Township, Washington County

How Aurelius Township, Washington County began

Aurelius Township, the smallest and one of the northernmost in Washington County, was carved from Monroe County territory and established December 15, 1818, at the urging of county commissioner Dr. John B. Regnier, who named it after one of his own sons (possibly recalling the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius). Levi Dains, a Revolutionary War veteran, was the first settler, arriving about 1806-1807; Regnier himself became the township's leading benefactor, building its first grist- and saw-mills, securing its first post office and road, and dying just before he could plat the village of Macksburg as he had planned. Reduced to its present small size when Noble County was formed in 1851, the township's economy turned on the Macksburg oil field discovered in 1859, and today a roadside Mail Pouch Tobacco advertising barn survives as a marker of the twentieth-century barn-advertising era. The 2020 census recorded 326 residents.

Settled 1806 or 1807 (Levi Dains, first settler), incorporated established as a township December 15, 1818; reconstituted in its present bounds May 19, 1851, by petition of John S. Corp and Judah M. Chamberlain, at the urging of Dr. John B. Regnier.

Where the name comes from

Dr. John B. Regnier, the county commissioner who secured the township's creation, was by common consent given the honor of naming it, and christened it Aurelius after one of his own sons; whether he in turn had named that son for the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius or for a friend or relation was already unknown by 1881.

Before the town

No Native village, mound, trail or treaty site specific to Aurelius Township was found in the sources checked. The 1881 county history records a local tradition about Indian Run, a tributary of Duck Creek: a party of three Indians hunting in the valley during a peacetime interlude went to Marietta, where one insulted a white boy by describing how he had killed the boy's father and then vanished after asking to be ferried across the Muskingum; his two companions waited in vain, then returned to camp on the stream, packed their gear, left their comrade's belongings, and blazed trees on their way out in case he returned -- the stream has been called Indian Run ever since.

Timeline

1. 1806 or 1807 — Levi Dains, a Revolutionary War veteran, becomes the first settler of what is now Aurelius Township, moving up from Fearing Township with his wife Chloe and their children; he builds the first house, a log cabin, and a panther raids the sheep pen the first night.
2. 1806 or 1807 — Joseph Dutton moves from Fearing Township and buys twenty-five acres from Levi Dean, becoming the township's second pioneer; his daughter Sallie later marries Levi Dains Jr. in the township's first wedding.
3. 1808-1810 — Nancy Dutton teaches a three-month winter school, the first in the township; the 1902 county history also places her teaching in 1809 and 1810.
4. 1809 — The first child born in the township, Simeon Dains, dies within months; the first funeral is preached at the Dains house by Mr. Goss, the first Methodist preacher in the county.
5. 1810 — Levi Dean plants the township's first orchard.
6. c. 1810-1812 — Elder Daniel Hilton arrives from Maine and organizes a Freewill Baptist church that meets in homes; it ends about 1817 when Hilton and other families leave by boat for Illinois.
7. c. 1815 — The first road for the township's benefit, from the mouth of Cat's Creek at Lowell to Middleburgh through Macksburg, is built through the efforts of Dr. Regnier.
8. c. 1818 — Dr. Regnier builds the first grist mill and first saw mill; the boarding of the mill workers leads William Rayley to found the Methodist society.
9. 1818-12-15 — On petition of John S. Corp, Judah M. Chamberlain and others, the commissioners establish the township of Aurelius, to hold its first election at Chamberlain's house in January 1819; Dr. Regnier names it.
10. c. 1819 — Dr. Regnier obtains the township's first post office and serves as first postmaster, with the office in his own house.
11. 1820 — Dr. Regnier builds the township's first brick house, with the date 1820 laid in black brick in a wall.
12. 1821-08-16 — Dr. John B. Regnier dies at Marietta of epidemic fever in his fifty-third year, before he can plat Macksburg; he is the second person buried in the cemetery he gave.
13. 1823 — Hollis Hutchins builds the first dated frame house in the township for John Hutchins Jr., about a mile above Macksburg.
14. c. 1824 — Benjamin Corp builds and gives the Methodist congregation a frame church about half a mile above Macksburg, later enlarged by cutting it in two and adding fifteen feet.
15. c. 1827 — William W. Mackintosh, Dr. Regnier's son-in-law, opens the first store in the township.
16. 1842 — At its June session the commissioners annex section 27 and fractional section 34 from Salem Township to Aurelius.
17. 1851-03-11 — The act forming Noble County takes most of Aurelius; on May 19 the commissioners reconstitute the remaining fraction as Aurelius Township, with an election on May 30.
18. 1855 — Methodists nearest Macksburg build the church now at that village, on land given by John Hilton.
19. 1859-10 — James and William Dutton, John Smithson and Alden Warren strike the 'big vein' at fifty-six feet in the Dutton well below Macksburg, the first paying oil well in the county.
20. 1880 — The census counts 1,004 residents, up from 799 in 1870, as the oil field fills the Duck Creek valley with derricks.

Stories

The father of the township

Dr. John B. Regnier, a native of Paris, France, came to Marietta about 1806 and moved into what became Aurelius Township around 1819 or 1820, though he had been buying land and improving the district for years before that. As a Washington County commissioner from 1815 until his death, he got the territory annexed from Monroe County, secured the township's establishment in 1818, obtained its first post office and first road, and built its first grist- and saw-mills. He named the new township Aurelius after one of his own sons. His plan to lay out the village near his mills, and to open a drug store there himself, was cut short when he died of epidemic fever at Marietta on August 16, 1821, just as his new brick mansion was ready for him to move into. Old citizens long considered his death a misfortune for the village's prosperity, which is why Macksburg grew up without being surveyed into lots until it was largely built. He was buried in the cemetery he had donated below Macksburg, the second person interred there after Mrs. Phineas Beardsley; his tombstone, inscribed 'A native of Paris, in France,' still stood there in 1881.

How Ben beat the boat

When the Dains family prepared to leave Aurelius for Illinois about 1817, they did not plan to take Benjamin, whom neighbours thought too slow for emigrating; they remembered it had once taken him three days to drive an ox team to Marietta. Benjamin quietly made his own arrangements. When the family's boat, built in the woods below Macksburg and launched over felled trees used as skids by the neighbours, approached the Illinois shore, the first figure they saw on the bank was Benjamin, grinning. He had walked the whole way and beaten them there. The welcome did not last: cholera soon killed all the children but Benjamin and Lucy, and the father had already died.

Oil in Duck Creek

About 1858-59 John McKee, drilling for salt near Caldwell, struck oil and celebrated with a bonfire. James Dutton, who as a boy swimming in the holes of Duck Creek had noticed that jumping in the water sent oil floating to the surface, joined William Dutton, John Smithson and Alden Warren to drill on the creek bank a mile below Macksburg. They worked through rock by hand, a foot-square hole at a time, and in October 1859 hit the 'big vein' at fifty-six feet, pumping an eighty-barrel tank full in half a day. Oil sold for twenty-eight dollars a barrel for a year, and the well itself sold for $100,000; the county history called it the first paying well in the county and the first large well in the state. A rush of companies and derricks followed, until by 1880 a visitor could count a derrick for nearly every house in the valley, and Dutton's boyhood nickname 'Wolf' had given way to 'Oil'.

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

No water-system data is linked to Aurelius Township, Washington County's ZIP codes yet.

Shale and injection wells (5)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked. The county's results on file run through 2025-05-06; later elections are not loaded yet.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-05-28
• Basic Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-02-18

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for Aurelius Township, Washington County, Washington County and its school district:

• Washington County: Renews a 0.35-mill property tax levy to operate 911 system of Washington County for 5 years, beginning in 2026.
• Washington County: Renews a 0.5-mill property tax levy for the prevention, treatment & recovery programs for children, adolescents & adults of Washington County for 5 years, beginning in 2027.

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