Big Island Township, Marion County

How Big Island Township, Marion County began

Big Island Township, in the western part of Marion County, was organized in early 1824 out of what became the county's third tax-collection district, alongside Salt Rock, Center and Grand Prairie townships. It takes its name from a tract of forest that early settlers believed had once stood on an island, or, in another telling, from a large grove rising out of the surrounding prairie. First settled around 1819-1821 by families including Jacob Croy, Joshua Cope Sr. and the widow Neville with her sons, the township grew along the Scioto and Little Scioto rivers as farmland; its one community, the unincorporated village of Big Island, held a post office from 1829 to 1870.

Settled 1819-1821, incorporated 1824 (township organized), by Jacob Croy and Joshua Cope Sr., among the first settlers; township organized by the Marion County Commissioners.

Where the name comes from

The township and its namesake village take their name from a tract of forest -- described in one source as a large grove standing out of the surrounding prairie -- that early settlers believed must once have stood on an island. It is the only Big Island Township in Ohio.

Before the town

Big Island Township holds one of the few site-specific prehistoric references found anywhere in Marion County's local histories: the 1883 county history describes 'a noted Indian Fort' on the highest ground in the township, in the southeast quarter of Section 1, where Col. Samuel Everett lived until his death in 1842. The history states the site 'really consists of two forts, the principal one being surrounded by a deep ditch' with embankments -- a description consistent with a prehistoric earthwork of the kind built by Adena, Hopewell or Fort Ancient peoples elsewhere in Ohio, though no source consulted assigns it to a specific culture or gives an excavation date, and the 1883 history's own language ('Indian Fort') reflects nineteenth-century settler terminology rather than an archaeological identification. The same chapter records 'an Indian graveyard' on the farm of James Harraman, again without naming a culture or period. No historic-era Native village, trail or treaty boundary specific to Big Island Township is documented in the sources checked; the township, organized in 1824, lies south of the 1817 Delaware reservation and was purchased from the Wyandot, Delaware and allied nations along with the rest of the county's northern and western ground by the Treaty of the Maumee Rapids of September 29, 1817.

• Big Island Township earthwork ('Indian Fort') (earthwork) — southeast quarter of Section 1, Big Island Township, on the highest ground in the township; site of Col. Samuel Everett's farm, prehistoric; culture and date not given in the source (ohiogenealogyexpress.com)
• Indian graveyard, Harraman farm (burial) — farm of James Harraman, Big Island Township, not given in the source (ohiogenealogyexpress.com)

Timeline

1. 1819 — Jacob Croy and Joshua Cope Sr. arrive in the late winter, among the township's first settlers, along with the widow Neville and her sons John and William.
2. 1819-1821 — Additional settlers arrive, including Jacob Dickerson, William and Alexander Britton, Samuel Jones, Dr. Alson Norton and Hezekiah Gorton.
3. 1822-07-06 — Rev. David Dudley organizes the Free-Will Baptist Church in the township.
4. 1824 — Big Island Township is organized, likely at the first Marion County Commissioners session, which convened June 7, 1824; by June 10 it is recognized as an established township.
5. 1829 — A post office opens in the village of Big Island.
6. 1842 — Union Church is built by the Free-Will Baptist congregation.
7. 1868 — Pleasant Hill Union Church is built.
8. 1870 — The Big Island post office closes.
9. 1873-07-06 — The Free-Will Baptist congregation's Big Island Village church is dedicated.

Stories

The First White Child, and the Fort on the Hill

Lydia Cope, daughter of one of the township's first settlers, Joshua Cope Sr., is recorded in the 1883 county history as the first white female born in Big Island Township, a marker the county's chroniclers kept for nearly every township as a way of dating a community's true start. A few miles from where the Cope family settled, on the highest ground in the township, stood what settlers called 'a noted Indian Fort' -- in truth two connected earthen enclosures, the main one ringed by a deep ditch and embankment, on land that later became Col. Samuel Everett's farm until his death in 1842. Nothing in the 1883 account says who built it or when, only that it and an Indian graveyard on the nearby Harraman farm were treated as established local landmarks well before the county historians ever wrote them down -- reminders, like the ancient earthworks recorded in the Scioto and Darby valleys to the south, that the ground beneath Marion County's farms had been shaped by hands long before Jacob Croy built his cabin in the winter of 1819.

Local history sources: ohiogenealogyexpress.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com

Mostly private wells The water here

• Aqua Ohio - Marion96% of residentsScioto River and Little Scioto River intakes, blended with local groundwater wells
• Del-co Water Company, Inc.4% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells
• Pleasant Acres Mobile Home Community Llc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

Public EV charging (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 1 of 1 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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-09-30

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