Bloom Township, Seneca County

How Bloom Township, Seneca County began

Bloom Township was organized in 1824 and covers 36.4 square miles in southeastern Seneca County, named, by one account for its scenic, rustic setting and, by the 1911 county history, for the German patriot Bloom at the suggestion of pioneer John Seitz. Bloomville, the township's central village, is the only real settlement within it; a former school building stands north of Bloomville as one of the township's few other landmarks. Bloom is one of five townships of that name in Ohio.

Incorporated 1824 (organized), by organized by Seneca County.

Where the name comes from

The township was established in 1824 as a large township that included present Bloom, Scipio, Reed and Venice, and, according to the 1911 county history, was named for the German patriot Bloom on the suggestion of John Seitz; his brother Lewis Seitz, writing as a pioneer, says the name Bloom had been suggested by John a year before he arrived in October 1825. A second account says it was named for its scenic, rustic setting.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound, trail, or treaty site specific to Bloom Township is recorded. Seneca County's historic-era Native history includes the Seneca reservation, which lay to the north of this township, and the 1831 removal.

Timeline

1. 1822-04-05 — Noah Seitz, from Fairfield County, settles on the northeast quarter of section twenty, the first settlement within the future township's limits; Thomas Boyd arrives with his sister Mrs. Mary Donnel that same spring, and Joseph McClelland and James Boyd settle on Honey Creek the same year.
2. 1823 — Joseph Birnside arrives from Fairfield County and, finding his intended land already claimed, moves into neighboring Clinton Township; Joseph McClelland, Nehemiah Hadley, George Free, Lowell Robinson, John C. Martin and Thomas West and their families also arrive in Bloom this year.
3. 1824-06 — Bloom Township is organized, per Lang's county history, in June 1824; by 1830 it already had a recorded population of 589.
4. 1824-12 — Scipio Township is detached from Bloom, which had originally comprised the townships of Bloom, Scipio, Reed and Venice; Reed is set off in December 1826 and Venice in June 1829.
5. 1825-10 — Lewis Seitz, aged 23, comes from Fairfield County to a farm in Bloom Township, where fewer than a score of settlers precede him; he later becomes pastor of the Honey Creek Baptist church for decades.
6. 1827-05-27 — The Honey Creek Baptist church is organized by a council of elders from Highland, Pickaway and Fairfield counties; Lewis Seitz is chosen pastor in 1830.
7. 1830 — The Presbyterian church of Bloom is organized by Rev. James Robinson of Melmore, who preached to the settlers.
8. 1834 — The township's first meeting house, a small frame Presbyterian church, is built; it burns down by an unknown cause before it is fully plastered and is replaced with a brick church.
9. 1838 — Elizabethtown is surveyed on section 6 and named for Elizabeth Boyer, wife of Dr. Fisher; it never grows beyond a store, a wagon shop and a blacksmith shop and is gone by 1911.
10. 1842 — The Roman Catholic church of St. Stephen is founded in the eastern part of the township, with Rev. Salesius Brunner as its first priest; a new church is begun when its cornerstone is laid October 1, 1885.
11. 1880 — The township's population reaches 2,162, up from 589 in 1830 and 1,168 recorded in the 1840 census.
12. 1911 — St. Stephens, an old settlement in the eastern part of Bloom Township, is a small village and a station on the Toledo division of the Pennsylvania lines.
13. 2020 — The 2020 census counts 1,624 residents in Bloom Township.

Stories

The judge, the saddle, and the grand jury

Lowell Robinson, an early Bloom Township settler on section eight who later served as one of Seneca County's associate judges, was a large, popular man known for his common sense, but he and his small-statured wife did not get along. At one point, while Robinson was still sitting as associate judge, his wife had him prosecuted for assault and battery; a grand jury indicted him, and at trial he had to leave the bench and sit as the defendant. Testimony in the case brought out that his wife had once put a saddle on his back and climbed onto it while he knelt at prayer with his head down, an incident the record suggests provoked the blow he was charged with. Dr. Graves, a local doctor, liked to retell a joke at Robinson's expense over the judge's unusually large mouth: called in to pull a tooth, Robinson opened his mouth wide in the dentist's chair, and Graves told him, "Never mind, Judge, I prefer standing on the outside." Robinson later moved to California, where he died.

Hadley, the boss hunter of Honey Creek

Pioneer Lewis Seitz remembered Nehemiah Hadley as the boss hunter and trapper on Honey Creek: at a single hunt Hadley brought down seven deer, six of them by torchlight and the seventh at sunrise. When game grew scarce, Hadley had J. C. Hampton haul his family and his goods, mostly steel traps, to the head of canoe navigation on the Scioto in Hardin County. There he dug out two large walnut canoes, lashed them side by side, and set out for Cairo on the Mississippi. One canoe was wrecked on the Scioto, but the other reached Portsmouth with Hadley's family walking much of the way. A steamboat captain bound for Iowa, impressed by a man who would venture his all on the Ohio in a canoe, carried him to his destination without charge.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Bloomville Village97% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Attica Village3% of residentsHoney Creek (via 2 storage reservoirs)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-19

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