Ballville Township, Sandusky County

How Ballville Township, Sandusky County began

Ballville Township was organized in 1822 by petition, splitting off from Sandusky Township, and named for Colonel James V. Ball, whose mounted squadron fought Indians at the site two days before Croghan's victory at Fort Stephenson in 1813; it is the only Ballville Township in Ohio. The township wraps around the southern edge of Fremont, the county seat, and its western part carried the outer edge of the Seneca of Sandusky reservation until that band ceded its land in 1831. Water power from the Sandusky River's second rapids built up a small settlement at the north end of the township by 1821, and the Mull Covered Bridge, an 1840s-era wooden bridge over the East Branch of Wolf Creek near Burgoon, is the township's chief surviving landmark.

Settled 1821, incorporated 1822, by organized by petition to split off from Sandusky Township; the petition itself asked that the new township be called Ball's township.

Where the name comes from

Named for Colonel James V. Ball, whose mounted squadron, carrying mail and military communications between Fort Seneca and Fort Stephenson, was ambushed by Indians at a spot on the road now within Oakwood Cemetery, two days before Croghan's victory at Fort Stephenson in 1813. Ball led the charge himself and the site was long known as 'Ball's battle ground'; the 1822 organization petition itself asked that the new township be named in his honor. Ballville is the only township of that name in Ohio.

Before the town

Ballville Township's northern edge is part of the same ground -- the lower rapids of the Sandusky River -- where Wyandot tradition places two 'cities of refuge' and where the Wyandot war chief Tarhe lived before 1795; that history belongs to Fremont, which extends into the township's north end. The township's western portion also carried part of the 40,000-acre Seneca of Sandusky reservation created by the 1817 Treaty of the Maumee Rapids, which the Seneca ceded under an 1831 treaty before removal west. The 1882 county history places the Seneca council house and tribal burying-ground, used for important trials including witchcraft accusations, on the east bank of the Sandusky River within the township, on the farm later owned by Mrs. Harriet Seager; it also records that the Seneca considered witchcraft a capital offense and that both the accused witch and the person supposedly bewitched could be put to death by the tribe's own judgment, a practice the same source describes happening to at least one woman in this area.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Seneca (Seneca-Cayuga).

• Seneca of Sandusky reservation (western edge) (other) — western Ballville Township, 1817-1831 (remarkableohio.org)
• Seneca council house and burying-ground (village) — east bank of the Sandusky River, Ballville Township, near the mouth of Wolf Creek, 1817-1831 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1813 — Colonel James V. Ball's mounted squadron was ambushed by Indians on the road through the township, two days before Croghan's victory at nearby Fort Stephenson; the site became known as Ball's battle ground and later gave the township its name.
2. 1817-1831 — The western part of the township lay within the Seneca of Sandusky reservation, created by the Treaty of the Maumee Rapids and ceded by the Seneca in 1831.
3. 1818 — David Moore, Asa B. Gavit, John Wolcutt and others settle as squatters in the north part of the township next to Fremont's two-mile-square reservation.
4. 1819 — Samuel Cochran, hired by Gen. Cass, the Indian agent, to help mail carriers at the mouth of Wolf Creek in high water, builds the first white man's cabin in the upper township; the Indians who still held title tried to persuade him to leave but used no violence.
5. 1820 — The land comes into market with the first general sale at Delaware; permanent settlement begins as many squatters buy and emigrants fill the country from New York, Pennsylvania and southern Ohio.
6. 1821 — The first white child known to be born in the township, Margaret Frary, was born; the same year two grist-mills, built by David Chambers and David Moore, and a saw-mill built by Mr. Tindall, went up at the second rapids of the Sandusky River, founding the village that took the township's name.
7. 1822 — Ballville Township was organized by petition, splitting off from Sandusky Township; the first election was held April 1, 1822, at the house of petitioner David Chambers.
8. 1831 — Charles Choate leases the shed and water power at Moore's mill and starts wool carding and fulling; by the end of nine years he cards forty thousand pounds of wool a year.
9. 1837 — James Moore completes his new mill at the rapids, begun in 1835; in 1839 James Valletti buys an interest and Moore and Valletti survey the village of Ballville into lots.
10. 1840s — The Mull Covered Bridge was built over the East Branch of Wolf Creek near Burgoon; an on-site marker gives 1842, while the National Register nomination lists 1851 -- sources disagree on the exact year.
11. 1845 — James Moore builds a cotton factory that is burned in a short time; his stone mill follows in 1858.
12. 1867 — P. C. Dean and John Moore build the Croghan mill, destroyed by fire in 1878 and rebuilt the same year.
13. 1974-10-15 — The Mull Covered Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stories

The Ballville water-power lawsuit

David Moore, David Chambers, and Asa B. Gavit owned adjoining land along the Sandusky River at Ballville village, in that order upstream. Chambers built a dam and mill, but Moore built a second dam below it, throwing back water onto Chambers's wheel; Chambers sued Moore for trespass, only for the case to reveal that his own dam's backwater covered four feet of exposed limestone ledge on Gavit's land across the river. Gavit sued in turn, and the case reached the Ohio Supreme Court on the question of whether a landowner along a navigable river owns any part of the riverbed itself. The court ruled that an owner on one bank holds to the middle of the stream, subject only to the public's right of navigation -- a decision watched closely by river-property owners across the state. Gavit died before the ruling came down, but his estate won the case; Chambers and Moore then settled their own dispute by Moore simply buying Chambers out, giving him sole control of the water power along the Ballville rapids.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Sandusky County on the full map

Sandusky River (surface water). River water is reportedly pumped to the city's off-line Fremont Reservoir, then flows by gravity to the treatment plant. The water here

• Fremont City97% of residentsSandusky River (via Ballville Dam intake and city reservoir)
• Shorewood Village Subdivision1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Green Springs Village1% of residentsRaccoon Creek & Beaver Creek Reservoirs (upground, off Sandusky River basin)
• Brightstar Fremont MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Community health centers (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

Public schools (1)

Private schools (1)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Superfund sites (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-01-24: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 2 of 2 passed.

Ballot issues

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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-23

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