Chester Township, Morrow County

How Chester Township, Morrow County began

Chester Township was established in 1812, before the War of 1812 had even ended, making it one of the earliest-organized townships in what became Morrow County; it was named for Chester County, Pennsylvania, the home region of some of its first settlers. It once may have held two of the county's earliest settler families, the Holts, who are recorded arriving around 1806-1807, before formal organization. The township's village, Chesterville, sits in its northern half, and the 1911 county history records prehistoric mounds within the township. It had 1,851 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled 1808 (Evan Holt, then John Walker), incorporated organized 1812 by the Knox County commissioners; Franklin Township set off in 1823.

Where the name comes from

Named after Chester County, Pennsylvania, the native home of some of the township's first settlers.

Before the town

The 1911 county history lists prehistoric earthwork mounds in Chester Township among a set found across several Morrow County townships (Chester, Troy, Canaan, Washington and Lincoln), evidence of the Mound Builder cultures that predated the historic Native nations. No historic-era Native village, trail or treaty site specific to Chester Township is recorded; the area was part of Knox County land before 1848. Baskin (1880) adds that when John Walker came in March 1808 he found Native people encamped on the site of Chesterville, who did not molest him, and that the Welsh Baptist preacher Henry George held camp-meetings among them and was known for his power with them.

Nations recorded here: Adena culture, Hopewell culture.

• Chester Township mounds (mound) — Chester Township, Morrow County, prehistoric (Mound Builder era) (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1807 — Joseph Vance surveys the township.
2. 1808 — Evan Holt, a Welsh-born Revolutionary veteran from Chester County, Pennsylvania, moves onto his military-warrant land near the center of the township, the first settler, after Joseph Vance's 1807 survey; the 1880 county history dates this to 1808.
3. 1808-03 — John Walker moves from Washington, Pennsylvania, to a clay knoll north of the site of Chesterville; he finds Native people encamped on the village site, who do not molest him.
4. 1810 — The family of Jacob Shur arrives; Mrs. Walker, who had not seen another woman for eighteen months, greets them with joy.
5. 1812 — Chester Township was formally organized.
6. 1816 — Henry George, a Welsh stone-mason and Old School Baptist preacher, organizes a church of about twenty members; a hewed-log church follows in 1819.
7. 1819 — John Gwynn, helped by the whole community in a mill-raising bee, completes the township's first mill, moved to its present site in 1827.
8. 1823 — Franklin Township is set off, leaving Chester five miles square.
9. 1848 — The township, previously part of Knox County, became part of the newly organized Morrow County.
10. 1860-01 — Chesterville is incorporated as a village after a petition of August 1859.
11. 1911 — Prehistoric mounds in the township were recorded in the county history.
12. 2020 — The census counts 1,851 people in Chester Township, 191 of them in Chesterville.

Stories

A township named for home

When settlers from Chester County, Pennsylvania reached this stretch of Knox County land in the early 1800s, they gave their new township the name of the county they had left behind. Chester Township organized in 1812, making it one of the oldest township governments in the area that later became Morrow County, and Evan Holt, the township's first settler, arrived in 1807 or 1808, among the first white settlers anywhere in the future county and before the War of 1812 began.

The woman who saw no woman's face for eighteen months

John Walker moved his family from Washington, Pennsylvania in March 1808 to a barren clay knoll just north of the site of Chesterville, chosen for a fine spring. A land owner in Chillicothe had offered him fifty acres at fifty cents an acre if he would clear it. He found Native people camped on the village site, who left him alone. For some eighteen months the family lived alone, the dense forest between them and the Holts hiding every neighbor, and Mrs. Walker became expert with a gun and once shot a deer that was passing the cabin. When Jacob Shur's family arrived in fall 1810 she received them with such joy that she said she had not seen a woman's face for eighteen months except her own in the running brook. Shur bought 125 acres and built a double log cabin a quarter-mile northwest of where the hotel later stood.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Del-co Water Company, Inc.53% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells
• Fredericktown Village28% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Cardington Village11% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Mt Gilead Village6% of residentsGroundwater wells (5 wells)
• Candlewood Lake Association Inc2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Public EV charging (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Stations and terminals (1)

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