Bethel Township, Monroe County

How Bethel Township, Monroe County began

Bethel Township, organized March 5, 1832 in the county's southwestern corner, was settled by the Crow, Miller, Martin and Conner families along the Clear Fork bottoms, with Jacob Miller building the first cabin in 1817. Henry Winland built the first grist mill in 1830, Thomas Masters organized the town of Lebanon on the county line about 1842, and the Methodists organized near it in 1839. Four post offices served the 20-square-mile township by 1880 -- Masterton at Lebanon, Marr, Sycamore Valley and Quarry -- when it counted 1,165 residents. It had 271 residents in 2020.

Settled 1817 (Jacob Miller), incorporated 1832-03-05 (township organized).

Where the name comes from

The origin of the township name 'Bethel' is not recorded, though it is a biblical place name used widely for Methodist-founded communities across the Ohio frontier.

Before the town

No Native American village, camp or mound is recorded for Bethel Township. The area lay within the broader hunting and travel range of the Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware) and Mingo peoples before the Treaty of Greenville (1795), but no named site is recorded in the township.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware), Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

Timeline

1. 1817 — Jacob Miller built the first cabin in what became Bethel Township; his son John was the first child born there.
2. 1830 — Henry Winland built the township's first grist mill, later adding a sawmill.
3. 1832-03-05 — Bethel Township was formally organized, comprising 20 square miles.
4. 1832 — The first election was held at Woodman Okey's house, choosing Robert Martin, Jacob Miller and Woodman Okey as trustees, Jonathan Hendershot as clerk and Thomas Martin as justice of the peace; Samuel Casey taught the first school on Okey's farm.
5. 1839 — Reverend Mordecia Bishop organized the Methodist Episcopal Society in the township.
6. 1842 — Thomas Masters began developing the community that became Lebanon.
7. c. 1845 — The first post office, Masterton, opened at Lebanon, a town Thomas Masters had organized around 1842 on the county line; it had about 100 residents in 1880.
8. 1880 — Quarry post office was established, and the township's population reached 1,165, with seven schools serving 308 pupils.
9. 1880 — Bethel Township had 1,165 residents; Marr, Sycamore Valley and Quarry were its other post offices, and the Cumberland seam of coal had been extensively mined.
10. 2020 — The census counted 271 residents in the 23.5-square-mile township.

Stories

Four post offices in twenty square miles

Bethel Township, in the southwestern corner of Monroe County, had by 1880 four post offices for about twenty square miles of farm country. Masterton, opened about 1845 or 1846 at Lebanon, was named for Thomas Masters, who had organized the town about 1842 on the county line; Marr stood at the mouth of Indian Creek, Sycamore Valley on Clear Fork in the north, and Quarry in the southeast corner, established only in 1880. Jacob Miller built the first cabin in 1817 and his son John was the first child born in the township; Henry Winland built the first grist mill in 1830, twenty by thirty feet with one run of stone and a hand-turned bolt. The Crows, Lindemoods, Dearths, Hupps, McVays, Martins and Conners, all large families, settled the Clear Fork bottoms. The Methodist Episcopal society was organized near Lebanon in 1839 by Rev. Mordecai Bishop, and Thomas Merridith was its first class leader.

Local history sources: monroe.ohgenweb.org · en.wikipedia.org

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

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Shale and injection wells (4)

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