Bucyrus Township, Crawford County

How Bucyrus Township, Crawford County began

Bucyrus Township surrounds most of the City of Bucyrus, the Crawford County seat, on its southwestern side and takes its name from the city itself, founded around 1821-1822 when Samuel Norton, who had arrived in the area in October 1819 with seventeen companions, partnered with Colonel James Kilbourne to lay out the town. The township's own countryside preserves two structures the city does not: the one-room Harvey School and the Monnett Memorial Methodist Episcopal Chapel (now Lighthouse Baptist Church), both southwest of Bucyrus and both listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Settled 1819, by settled by Samuel Norton and companions, 1819; the City of Bucyrus laid out about 1821-1822 by Norton and Colonel James Kilbourne.

Where the name comes from

The township takes the name of the City of Bucyrus, which it surrounds; the origin of 'Bucyrus' itself is disputed.

Before the town

Before Norton's 1819 arrival, the same ground he settled held a Native wigwam, which he and his party first occupied themselves. Three miles of the western portion of Bucyrus and Holmes townships lay inside the Wyandot reservation before that land was ceded and sold at auction in 1835.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1819 — Samuel Norton arrives in October with seventeen companions and occupies a wigwam standing in the woods before later purchasing 400 acres that became central Bucyrus.
2. 1821 — Norton partners with Colonel James Kilbourne to establish and name the town of Bucyrus.
3. 1822 — A county road is established from the southeast corner of Section 13 to Bucyrus, and a State road is located from Norton, Delaware County to Sandusky City through the township along the later Columbus and Sandusky pike, though the first road is never finished.
4. 1824-12-07 — The Marion County commissioners order the organization of the original fractional Township 8, Range 16 as Bucyrus Township; the first officers are unknown and any records before 1833 are destroyed.
5. 1829-11 — The Marquis family settles on a farm three miles south of the town, in a part of the township with no schoolhouses at that time; none is built between Bucyrus and the Marion County line by 1832.
6. 1830 — Eighty-two people pay personal property tax in the township, and its population is about seven hundred, of whom about two hundred live outside the town.
7. 1834-03-03 — The legislature incorporates a road from Bucyrus to Upper Sandusky, and a road from Bucyrus to Galion is laid out on July 18.
8. 1836 — The Wyandots sell to the government a strip seven miles wide from the east end of their reserve, bringing the reserve's border near Bucyrus Township.
9. 1840 — The township including Bucyrus has 1,654 people, then 2,315 in 1850, 3,543 in 1860, 4,184 in 1870 and 5,086 in 1880; outside the village the count is 1,238 in 1880.
10. 1860 — Lincoln takes 419 votes in the township against 320 for Douglas, a change from 1848 and 1852 when the Whig and Democratic vote ran close; Fremont won by 95 in 1856.
11. 2010 — The Harvey One-Room School, southwest of Bucyrus in the township, is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
12. 2020 — The census counts 821 people in Bucyrus Township outside the city of Bucyrus.

Stories

One room, kept whole

Southwest of Bucyrus on Caldwell Road stands the Harvey One-Room School, a single-classroom schoolhouse of the kind that once dotted every rural Ohio township. Most were torn down, converted to storage, or simply left to fall in once school consolidation swept the state in the mid-twentieth century. Harvey School survived, well enough preserved that it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

A chapel becomes a Baptist church

The Monnett Memorial Methodist Episcopal Chapel, built southwest of Bucyrus and listed on the National Register in 1986, no longer serves the Methodist congregation it was built for. It operates today as Lighthouse Baptist Church.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Crawford County on the full map

Sandusky River (via Outhwaite & Riley up-ground reservoirs) The water here

• Bucyrus City100% of residentsSandusky River (via Outhwaite & Riley up-ground reservoirs)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Private schools (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 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.
• Financial Audit, 2021 to 2022, released 2025-05-15

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