Chickasaw

How Chickasaw began

Chickasaw was laid out in July 1838 by John Nutter and James Brooks in northern Marion Township, received a post office in 1840, and grew little until the Toledo, Delphos & Burlington railroad (later the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton) came through in 1881; it was incorporated in 1890. It takes its name from Chickasaw Creek and, by local tradition, from a small band of Native people called Chickasaw who lived along the creek when settlers arrived. Before the railroad it was a stop on the plank road, now State Route 274, that carried grain from western Mercer County to the canal at New Bremen. Its Catholic church began as a weekday chapel in 1897 and became the separate parish of the Most Precious Blood in 1903; the parish's 1904 rectory and former school are on the National Register.

Platted 1838 (July), incorporated 1890, by John Nutter and James Brooks.

Where the name comes from

Named after the Chickasaw, per Wikipedia. The Mercer County Historical Society's 1959 history says a small band known as the Chickasaw lived on the higher ground along the stream that took their name, Chickasaw Creek, before white settlement; the village stands on that creek. A 2025 Daily Standard history adds a local tradition of individuals called "Big" and "Little" Chickasaw. The Chickasaw Nation's homeland lay far to the south, so the band's identity is recorded tradition rather than a documented finding.

Before the town

Chickasaw's name is its main piece of recorded Native history. The Mercer County Historical Society's 1959 history says that before white settlement a small band known as the Chickasaw lived on the higher ground along Chickasaw Creek, living by hunting, fishing and trapping, and that hundreds of arrowheads and other artifacts were later found on that ground; it also says the first settlers of neighboring Franklin Township found the same band. That history admits the band's presence "is not clearly understood." What is documented is that Chickasaw men were in this country during the Northwest Indian War: Howe's Historical Collections records that shortly before the attack on Fort Recovery at the end of June 1794, General Anthony Wayne sent out three small parties of Chickasaw and Choctaw scouts from Greenville to take prisoners, and two of them were in sight of the fort when the assault began. A 2025 Daily Standard history reports a further tradition that Chickasaw people were still living at the village in 1853; no primary record of that was found. A small cemetery near the village, the Iniard burial ground, has sometimes been taken for an Indian burial ground, but the 1959 history identifies it as the graveyard of a small English-speaking settler colony.

Nations recorded here: Chickasaw.

• Chickasaw Creek band's ground (tradition) (camp) — higher ground along Chickasaw Creek at and near the village, before white settlement in the 1830s (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1786 — The Chickasaw Nation signs the Treaty of Hopewell with the United States, formalizing an alliance that, per local tradition, is connected to the nation's later namesake presence at the Ohio village.
2. 1794 (June) — Before the attack on Fort Recovery, General Anthony Wayne sends three small parties of Chickasaw and Choctaw scouts out from Greenville; two of them are in sight of the fort when the assault begins.
3. 1833 — Samuel Gray, Charles Botkin and John Miller, whose families had settled on Chickasaw Creek, are elected trustees at Marion Township's first election, held June 25, 1833.
4. 1838 (July) — Chickasaw is surveyed and laid out by John Nutter and James Brooks.
5. 1840 — A post office is established at Chickasaw.
6. 1840s — German Catholic settlers arrive via the Miami and Erie Canal, joining the village's original English and Irish settlers, by an earlier account we could not confirm.
7. 1853 — Chickasaw people are said to be still living in the village of Chickasaw, per local historical research; no record of this was found.
8. 1881 — The Toledo, Delphos & Burlington railroad, later the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, is built through Chickasaw, bringing the village its greatest prosperity.
9. 1890 — Chickasaw incorporates as a village.
10. 1897 — Catholics in Chickasaw build a church, used at first as a chapel for weekday services of St. Sebastian's parish.
11. 1903 — The Chickasaw congregation is formally separated from St. Sebastian's and becomes the parish of the Most Precious Blood, with Rev. Anthony C. Tabke as its first pastor; an addition to the chapel costs $4,000.
12. 1903-01-12 — St. Sebastian's church, the nearby mother parish at Sebastian, is destroyed by fire little more than a week after the Chickasaw members withdraw.
13. 1904 — Precious Blood parish builds a brick rectory for about $4,000.
14. 1907 — Scranton's county history lists three general stores, a sawmill, a wagon maker, the Union Handle Company, a hotel and two one-story brick school buildings in the village.
15. 1920 — The eastern fork of a tornado from Darke County passes through Cranberry Prairie, St. Rosa and Chickasaw; the Lawrence Lochtefeld home half a mile east of the village is carried across the road.
16. 1967-02-23 — A new cross-shaped brick Precious Blood church, begun in late 1965, is dedicated.
17. 1979-07-26 — The Precious Blood rectory and the former parish school are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Chickasaw School and Rectory.

Stories

A Southeastern nation's name on an Ohio farm village

Of all the village names in Mercer County, Chickasaw is the hardest to explain by the usual pattern of German saints' days and Ohio-transplanted eastern place names. Local historical research credits the name to "Big" and "Little" Chickasaw, individuals said to have lived in the area when settlers, said to be English and Irish, first surveyed the village in 1838 -- an unusual claim, since the Chickasaw nation's documented homeland lay hundreds of miles south, in what is now Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. The Chickasaw had, however, allied closely with the United States: the nation signed the Treaty of Hopewell in 1786, and Chickasaw warriors under leaders like Chief James Underwood reportedly fought alongside Anthony Wayne's forces in the same Northwest Indian War campaign that produced Fort Recovery. Local researchers suggest that individuals from that alliance may have settled, or been allowed to remain, in Ohio rather than following the general Chickasaw removal route west in the 1830s -- and that Chickasaw people were still documented living in the village that bears their name as late as 1853. No academic source corroborating this tradition beyond the local newspaper account was found, so it is presented here as recorded local history rather than settled fact.

Hogs, grain and the plank road

Before the railroad, Chickasaw sat on a plank road, the forerunner of State Route 274, with a toll station in the village. Farmers from western Mercer County hauled hundreds of wagon loads of grain along it to the flour mills at New Bremen, where it was loaded onto Miami and Erie Canal boats. Hogs slaughtered across southern Mercer County were brought whole to the cellar of the Chickasaw flour mill and cut up there; the hams and shoulders were salted and shipped by canal to Cincinnati, and the side meat went to coal miners in West Virginia, while farmers took the heads, backbones and spareribs home for their own winter meat. The traffic supported taverns and hotels, and the society's 1959 history records an Underground Railroad stop at the east edge of the village before the Civil War. The railroad in 1881 replaced the road's trade, and a run of fires later destroyed the handle factory, the flour mill, the depot and a score of other buildings.

A parish split and a church fire

Chickasaw's Catholics first belonged to St. Sebastian's, nearly two miles to the northwest. In 1897 they built a small church in the village for weekday use, and because few villagers owned horses, support grew for a parish of their own. In January 1903 the Chickasaw members left St. Sebastian's, taking their belongings with them, and little more than a week later, on January 12, St. Sebastian's burned. The parish was divided: the remaining members rebuilt at Sebastian, and the Chickasaw chapel became the Church of the Most Precious Blood, with Rev. Anthony C. Tabke as pastor. The new parish enlarged the chapel that year, built a brick rectory in 1904, decided in 1908 to build a parish school, and had grown to 70 families by 1907.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Mercer County on the full map

Groundwater wells (2 wells) The water here

• Chickasaw Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public libraries (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

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, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-03

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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