Center Township, Wood County

How Center Township, Wood County began

Center Township's first white settler, Benjamin Cox, built a cabin near the Portage River in late 1827 or early 1828, bringing the township's first handmill; the township itself was established in 1835 and named simply for sitting at the geographic center of Wood County. It holds the western part of Bowling Green -- the two townships, Plain and Center, are literally the ground the county seat grew out of. The township also contains the Wood County Airport and the interchange of Interstate 75 and U.S. Route 6.

Settled late 1827 or early 1828, by Benjamin Cox, incorporated township established 1835, by Wood County commissioners.

Where the name comes from

Center Township was named for its position at the geographic center of Wood County; Ohio has nine other Center Townships statewide.

Before the town

No mound, earthwork or named Native village is recorded in Center Township. The 1897 county history says the Portage River ridges were a favorite resort of the Indian trapper and hunter, and the sugar groves were camps of women and children making maple sugar each spring; distinct Indian paths ran along the Portage and through the sand ridges of Plain Township to Tontogany Creek long after the Native people had removed. Settler Adam Phillips followed an Indian trail up the Portage from Woodville in 1833. The land was Ottawa hunting ground until the 1817 Treaty of the Maumee Rapids.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa.

Timeline

1. 1819 — Samuel Holmes, deputy U.S. surveyor, runs the exterior lines of Town 5 North, Range 11 East; S. Bourne runs the subdivisional lines in 1821.
2. 1827-28 (winter) — Benjamin Cox, the township's first white settler, builds a cabin near the Portage River on what becomes the county Infirmary farm, bringing the first handmill into the township; he sells out and moves on after four years.
3. 1831-01-13 — Joseph Cox, son of Benjamin, makes the township's first formal land entry.
4. 1832-10-31 — Joseph A. Sargent enters 48 acres in the northwest corner of Section 31 on what is now Main Street, the township's second land entry; twelve days later Adam Phillips enters the Infirmary tract.
5. 1833-04 — Adam Phillips brings his wife and six children from Stark County, leaving the road at Woodville to follow the Indian trail up the Portage to the Cox cabin, the first wagon to come through on that route.
6. 1835-03 — The county commissioners grant Town 5 a township organization under the name Center, with the first election at Adam Phillips's house.
7. 1835-06 — At the first special election 26 votes are cast; Henry Shively gets 18 for justice.
8. 1839 — Thirty-nine men aged 21 or over live in the township.
9. 1840 — Center sends a buckeye log, cut and hauled by Adam Phillips and his neighbors, as its contribution to the log cabin at Fort Meigs for the great meeting held there.
10. 1844 — The south half of Section 31 of Middleton Township is added to Center on petition of its residents.
11. 1846 — When Webster Township is created, six sections of Center (1, 2, 11, 12, 14 and 15) are set off to it, leaving 30 and one-half sections.
12. 1852 — George Williams moves from Columbiana County and starts farming 700 acres east of Bowling Green, the later Williams Prairie.
13. 1853-07-04 — G. Z. Avery takes possession of a bear cub descended from the township's famous Ferciot bear hunt, later selling the by-then untameable animal for $44 the following winter.
14. 1855 — Bowling Green, straddling Center and Plain townships, is detached from both and incorporated as its own village.
15. 1884 — Gas is discovered at the county infirmary; the first deep well in Wood County is completed at Bowling Green in early 1885.
16. 1890 — The census counts 3,370 in the township, up from 97 in 1840 and 2,023 in 1880 (792 of those in the eastern part of Bowling Green).
17. 1893-11-28 to 1896-08-31 — The present Wood County Courthouse is built at Bowling Green, on ground reaching into Center Township.
18. 2020 — The census finds 1,140 people living in the township.

Stories

The Ferciot bear hunt

Peter Ferciot, Jesse Wood and Miles Deshler were out coon hunting one night in the 'Devil's Hole,' near where a later railroad crossed the center ditch, when Ferciot noticed a big sycamore with its bark badly scratched. The men felled the tree, and the moment it hit the ground a she-bear burst out. Ferciot's two dogs attacked her at once; one was disabled almost instantly, and the other locked jaws with the bear even as she crushed it in a fatal embrace. The men had kept their distance from the fight, but when Ferciot saw his dog losing the unequal struggle, he rushed in and split the bear's skull with his axe. Inside the fallen tree they found three cubs, barely larger than kittens, and each hunter claimed one. One of the cubs went on to cause considerable trouble in the households of Mrs. Ferciot and Mrs. Bloom before G. Z. Avery took it off their hands on July 4, 1853 -- and, finding it utterly untameable, sold it that winter for $44.

Joseph Wade, the sailor preacher, and the kettle of hot water

Joseph Wade, a United Brethren preacher and former sailor, lived a mile northeast of the future courthouse and declared that Wood County would be a good place only for the surplus fresh water. When he raised a large house he asked the neighbors to come without whiskey; they came, found none, and left, so Wade went to Perrysburg for ropes and pulleys and raised it with his pony. He later borrowed a small sum from the Rev. Isaac Van Tassel, could not repay it, and was sued. Constable D. L. Hixon seized the pony, wagon, hay and fanning mill, then came to the door for the rifle and clock. Wade's wife met him with a dipper of boiling water from the kettle on the fire and said she would scald the first man over the threshold. The constable and his assistant decided that the rifle and clock were not worth much anyway and left.

Williams Prairie: the first great farm in the swamp

George Williams moved from Columbiana County in 1852 and bought 700 acres east of Bowling Green at an average of $3.25 an acre. Neighbors thought the prairie grass and rosin-weed land could not be farmed and foretold disaster. In 1851 he dug three and a half miles of ditches, and in 1852 planted 140 acres of corn and 17 of buckwheat, selling 4,000 bushels of corn at 61 cents. His third corn crop brought $6,000 to $7,000, and by 1855 he held 1,700 acres, 900 of them cultivated. The county history calls him the first great farmer and first great ditch builder of the Black Swamp, and notes that success there depended on drainage; the land kept the name Williams Prairie. He later became a manufacturer at Columbus.

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

Every historic place in Wood County on the full map

Maumee River, pumped from a riverside intake on Ohio 65 into the 170-million-gallon Bowling Green Reservoir for storage before treatment The water here

• Bowling Green City97% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Pemberville Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (8 wells)
• Northwestern W and SD - Portage1% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Grand Rapids Village1% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Northwestern W and SD - Toledo Svc Area0% of residentsLake Erie
• Tontogany Village0% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Maurers Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Power plants (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 3 of 3 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

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