Buckland

How Buckland began

Buckland, in southern Logan Township on the Auglaize River, began as White Feather's Town, a Shawnee village named for the chief Na-Wa-Ba-She-Ka who lived there on both banks of the river. Josiah Clawson and John H. Gochenour platted the village on the site on November 27, 1872, keeping the name White Feather; once the Lake Erie and Western Railroad reached it the station and the town came to be called Buckland in everyday use, honoring General Ralph P. Buckland of Fremont, one of the railroad's promoters, though the name was not changed officially until an 1891 petition to the county commissioners. It peaked at 364 residents in 1910 and has held roughly steady near 230 people for the past several decades, straddling the Logan-Moulton township line.

Platted 1872-11-27, incorporated 1891, by Josiah Clawson and John H. Gochenour.

Where the name comes from

Platted November 27, 1872 as White Feather, for the Shawnee chief Na-Wa-Ba-She-Ka (White Feather) whose village had stood on the site; the Lake Erie and Western Railroad's arrival led residents to call the town Buckland in honor of General Buckland of Fremont, Ohio, one of the road's promoters, well before the change became official in 1891.

Before the town

Buckland occupies the site of White Feather's Town, a Shawnee village that stood on both banks of the Auglaize River under the chief Na-Wa-Ba-She-Ka (White Feather), on what became the west half of the northwest quarter and the east half of the northwest quarter of section eleven. It was one of the named towns within the reservation set off around Wapakoneta by the Treaty of the Maumee Rapids (1817) and the Treaty of St. Marys (1818), alongside Blackhoof's Town (now St. Johns) and Wapaghonetta itself, where the Shawnee council house stood. County historians also record that in the 1820s the few pioneer families of Logan Township lived among a second band of Shawnee at Shawnee Town (near the site later occupied by the Allen County Children's Home) and a band of Ottawa north of Fort Amanda; one settler, Russel Berryman, learned the Shawnee language as a boy and was later called on as an interpreter. The Whitefeather Indian camp land itself passed after removal to settler Jacob Baker. The village carried the name White Feather until 1891, six decades after the Shawnee were removed to Kansas in 1832, when the name was officially changed to honor a railroad promoter.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Ottawa.

• White Feather's Town (village) — west half and east half of the northwest quarter of section eleven, on both banks of the Auglaize River, site of present-day Buckland, to 1832 (hmdb.org)

Timeline

1. 1817-1818 — White Feather's Town is named as one of the settlements within the Shawnee reservation set off by treaty around Wapakoneta.
2. 1832 — The Shawnee, including those at White Feather's Town, are removed to Kansas following the 1831 cession treaty.
3. 1872-11-27 — Josiah Clawson and John H. Gochenour plat the village on the old White Feather site, keeping the name White Feather.
4. 1880 — The county history describes a station of about twenty houses already called Buckland on the new Lake Erie and Western Railroad, with a general store, drug store, physician (W. K. Sharp, M.D.), blacksmith and carriage shops, a sawmill, warehouse, telegraph and post office, though the village's legal name is still White Feather.
5. 1891 — A petition to the Auglaize County commissioners to incorporate the village and officially change its name from White Feather to Buckland, honoring railroad promoter General Buckland of Fremont, is granted.
6. 1892 — Buckland holds its first village election, choosing W. G. Brorein as mayor; the village then has about three hundred residents.
7. 1910 — Buckland reaches its peak recorded population of 364.

Stories

From White Feather's village to a railroad town

For decades before Ohio statehood and for some years after, a Shawnee village stood on both banks of the Auglaize River under a chief the treaty makers and settlers knew as White Feather, or Na-Wa-Ba-She-Ka. It was named among the towns inside the reservation set off around Wapakoneta by treaty in 1817 and 1818, alongside Wapaghonetta itself and Blackhoof's Town to the east. After the Shawnee were removed to Kansas in 1832, the site sat empty for four decades until November 27, 1872, when Josiah Clawson and John H. Gochenour platted a village there and kept the old name, White Feather. Once the Lake Erie and Western Railroad reached the settlement, people simply began calling the station and the town Buckland, for General Ralph P. Buckland of Fremont, one of the men who had promoted the railroad; the county history published in 1880 already describes a station called Buckland with a store, a physician and a warehouse, even though White Feather was still the village's legal name. It took until 1891 for a petition to the county commissioners to make the change official, and the following year Buckland held its first village election as an incorporated town of about three hundred people, trading a Shawnee chief's name for a railroad man's a full generation after the fact had already taken hold.

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

No water-system data is linked to Buckland's ZIP codes yet.

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Police stations (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-02-26

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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