Biglick Township, Hancock County

How Biglick Township, Hancock County began

Biglick Township, in eastern Hancock County, was organized by the county commissioners in 1831 and covers about 23,040 acres. It takes its name from 'Big Lick,' a cluster of sulphur springs and deer licks on Robert Long's farm near the township center, a landmark used by animals and by the Wyandot hunters who worked the area before white settlement. Samuel Sargent, the first settler, arrived around 1826 on a limestone ridge in the southeast; John Long and John Shoemaker followed in 1827 and 1829. It remained a farming township through the nineteenth century, with the crossroads villages of Freedom (platted 1836) and West Independence (laid out 1849) its only settlements; no municipality has ever incorporated within its boundaries, and it had 1,184 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled 1826, incorporated 1831, by Samuel Sargent (first settler, c. 1826); township organized by Hancock County commissioners in 1831.

Where the name comes from

The township is named for 'Big Lick,' a group of sulphur springs on Robert Long's farm near the township's center that had long served as a deer lick. The 1881 county history states the springs 'comprise what used to be a famous deer lick, called Big Lick, from which the township derives its name.'

Before the town

No mounds or named villages are recorded specifically within Biglick Township, though the county's 1903 history places the 16,000-acre Big Spring reserve, made for the Wyandot by the 1818 Treaty of St. Mary's and ceded in the early 1830s, at the southwest corner of Seneca County and 'the line into Biglick township'; and the 1881 Hancock County history preserves concrete, township-specific memories of Wyandot presence among the earliest white settlers. The 'Big Lick' deer-and-sulphur springs that gave the township its name were a hunting ground worked by Indian hunters and trappers who, the history says, 'made the neighborhood their rendezvous' and 'annoyed' early settlers such as John Shoemaker, whose grindstone they wore out sharpening tomahawks and knives. Mrs. John Moore is recorded trading venison for pork and potatoes with Indian visitors, and the Moore family's first child was rocked in a sap trough that had been made and used by 'Big River,' identified as a Wyandotte chief, before the Moores arrived. This places identifiable Wyandot activity in the township within living settler memory of the 1820s-1830s, shortly after the county's land was ceded in the Treaty of the Maumee Rapids (Fort Meigs), 1817, and the Treaty of St. Mary's, 1818. No earlier (mound-builder or Paleo-Indian) sites specific to this township were found; for the county-wide prehistoric and treaty record, see the Hancock County file.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1826 — Samuel Sargent becomes the first settler in Biglick Township, locating on a limestone ridge in the southeastern part of the township.
2. 1827 — John Long makes the second permanent settlement in the township, near its center.
3. 1829 — John Shoemaker settles in the township in February; Indian hunters and trappers who used the area as a rendezvous wear out his grindstone sharpening tomahawks and knives.
4. 1831 — Hancock County commissioners organize Biglick Township; the first township election is held at John Long's residence.
5. 1836 — The first schoolhouse is built by voluntary labor on James Graham's farm; the same year Uriah E. Drake plats the village of Freedom, forty-eight lots, on October 26.
6. 1844 — The township's first church, a hewed-log structure thirty-six feet square, is built at the Enon Valley Church site by Presbyterian, Covenanter, and Seceder congregations together.
7. 1849 — George Wyant, Peter Wyant, and Henry M. Grose lay out the village of West Independence on the Findlay-Tiffin road.
8. 1854 — A post office named West Independence is established, operating until 1908.
9. 1880 — The township has ten schoolhouses serving 413 school-age children, eight churches, and produces more than 75,000 bushels of wheat, with a population of 1,261.
10. 2020 — The township's population is 1,184 at the U.S. Census; it remains unincorporated with no municipality within its borders.

Stories

The grindstone and the deer lick

The township's name comes from a cluster of sulphur springs on Robert Long's farm, known locally as 'Big Lick,' which for generations drew deer, and the Wyandot hunters who tracked them, to the same ground near the township's center. When white families began arriving in the 1820s, that same rendezvous kept bringing Indian hunting and trapping parties through the new settlements, to the settlers' irritation. John Shoemaker, who arrived in February 1829 more prepared than his neighbors with an actual grindstone, found it monopolized: the county history records that Indian visitors 'charged upon that grind-stone with their dull tomahawks and knives, until it was literally worn out.' Mrs. John Moore, meanwhile, ran a running trade in venison for pork and potatoes with the same visitors, though the history notes drily that she 'invariably came out second best' in the bargain. The Moores' own first child was rocked in a sap trough carved by a Wyandotte chief remembered as 'Big River,' who had used it to gather maple sap on that same ground before the settlers came. The stories, told together, are the clearest surviving picture of daily contact between Biglick's first white families and the Wyandot people who had hunted the Big Lick before them.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Findlay City96% of residentsFindlay's two upground reservoirs, filled by pumping from the Blanchard River
• Vanlue Village3% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Arcadia Village1% of residentsEast Branch Portage River (via 6 storage reservoirs)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026 edition (Directory of Officials): county board of elections.

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 2025-08-05

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