Cessna Township, Hardin County

How Cessna Township, Hardin County began

Cessna Township, near the center of Hardin County, was organized in the spring of 1834 and named for Charles Cessna, who arrived from Coshocton County in 1830 and is recorded as its first white settler. Early families such as the Grays, Trumps, Ryans, and Wilsons arrived through the mid-1830s and organized Salem Church, one of the township's first Methodist congregations. The township has never held an incorporated village; Ada, in neighboring Liberty Township, is its nearest town though it is not itself part of Cessna Township.

Settled 1830, incorporated 1834, by organized in spring 1834, along with Goshen Township.

Where the name comes from

The township is named for Charles Cessna, who arrived from Coshocton County in 1830 and settled on Section 12, the first white settler recorded in the township.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, or treaty specific to Cessna Township is recorded. The 1883 county history records that when Levi Mathews settled his farm in May 1834 he lived in an old Indian bark house until he had cut logs and built a cabin, and that game of every kind was so plentiful about the marsh that he seldom needed to leave his own land for meat; it does not say who had built the bark house.

Timeline

1. 1813 — Three or four soldiers are buried on Fractional Section 36, just across the Scioto from Fort McArthur, during the fort's occupation; their names are lost, and it is the first interment recorded in the township.
2. 1830 — Charles Cessna arrives from Coshocton County and settles on Section 12, the township's first recorded white settler.
3. 1832 — Isaac Gray (from Franklin County) and Jacob Ryan (from Coshocton County) settle in the township.
4. 1834 — Cessna Township is organized in the spring, the same season as Goshen Township.
5. 1834-fall — Joseph Wilson, a Pennsylvania native, settles and, with his wife, becomes recognized as founder of Salem Methodist Church, the first Methodists to settle in the township.
6. 1834 — The first township election is held at an old schoolhouse on Section 11, with Charles Cessna a trustee and Joseph Lemont the first clerk; Levi Mathews settles on Section 5 in May, living at first in an old Indian bark house.
7. 1835 — The Rev. Kinnear, a Methodist preacher, organizes a class of seven at Joseph Wilson's house on Section 1; about 1840-41 the society, then about sixty strong, builds a log church on Wilson's farm, dedicated as Salem.
8. 1836 — The first schoolhouse is built on Section 11 about this year; James Hamilton had taught the first school about 1835 in his own house.
9. 1836-02 — Thomas Hitchcock, from Crawford County, settles in the township.
10. 1843 — Isaac Hitchcock, father of Thomas Hitchcock, settles at Huntersville about 1843-44 and builds a carding machine, which he runs for several years.
11. 1880 — Cessna Township's population is 966; its 14,400 acres are appraised at $303,890, and nearly half the land is still woods.
12. 2020 — The 2020 census counts 501 residents in Cessna Township.

Stories

A township named for its first arrival

Charles Cessna made the trip from Coshocton County in 1830 and settled on Section 12 of what would become, four years later, the township that bears his name. He was followed through the 1830s by families like the Grays, Trumps, Ryans, Beems, and Wilsons -- among them Jacob Beem, a War of 1812 veteran who stayed until 1872, and Joseph Wilson, credited as the founder of Salem Church, the township's earliest Methodist congregation. Cessna himself is buried in Salem Cemetery, on ground not far from where he first settled.

The Indian bark house on Levi Mathews' farm

When Levi Mathews moved his wife Elizabeth to the northeast quarter of Section 5 in May 1834, the first thing he found on his land was shelter built by someone else: an old Indian bark house. He lived in it while he cut logs and put up a cabin, and he stayed on the farm nearly half a century, until the 1883 county history was written. Game, he told its authors, was so plentiful that he seldom needed to leave his own land for meat, with deer, turkey, rabbit and squirrel and an occasional bear or wolf about the marsh. Allen Leper, who settled in the township in 1833, was perhaps the best trained hunter and Indian scout in Hardin County, and John Perry Euline, born in 1817, was the last old-time hunter left in 1883, still seen with his rifle on his shoulder and nothing larger to shoot than a rabbit.

Photographs

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

Scioto River valley aquifer (local wells, low confidence) The water here

• Kenton City80% of residentsScioto River valley aquifer (local wells, low confidence)
• Ada Village17% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Alger Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Hillcrest Estates Mobile Home Court1% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Green Meadow MHP-hancock Co0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Mcguffey Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-23

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