Clay Township, Auglaize County

How Clay Township, Auglaize County began

Clay Township was organized December 1, 1834, by the Allen County commissioners, its name and boundaries fixed by a petition still on record, in what became the eastern part of Auglaize County in 1848. It has no incorporated village of its own; its small settlements are Geyer (laid out by George Geyer in 1893 on a farm he had entered in 1840), Santa Fe and St. Johns, the last of these built directly on a large gravel mound where the Shawnee principal chief Black Hoof (Catahecassa) made his home from 1822 until his death in 1831. Jackson Center, known today as the home of Airstream travel-trailer manufacturing, lies just south of the township line in Shelby County and shares a ZIP code with Clay Township residents but is not itself within it. The township remains rural farmland typical of the county's east side.

Incorporated 1834-12-01, by petitioned by residents of survey township six south, range seven east.

Where the name comes from

Clay Township, like many Ohio townships of its era, is presumed named for statesman Henry Clay, though the surviving 1834 commissioners'-journal record of its organization gives the name without explaining the choice.

Before the town

The unincorporated community of St. Johns, straddling the Clay-Union township line, occupies the site of Blackhoof's Town, the last home of Catahecassa (Black Hoof), principal chief of the Shawnee nation. After the Shawnee were driven from their towns on the Great Miami in 1780, Black Hoof moved to this locality and first pitched his tepee on a large gravel mound in the south part of what is now St. Johns village; after the Quaker mission was established at Wapakoneta, a two-story, 18-by-24-foot log cabin was built for him on what became lot 29 in St. Johns, where he lived from 1822 until his death in 1831, at a reported age of 110. His body lay in state at the house before burial on a nearby ridge. Daniel Bitler and John Rogers platted the village of St. Johns directly over the vacated site in 1835, settling by lot a disagreement between them over its name. Historical markers placed by the Auglaize County Historical Society in 1980 and 1983 (with the Susanna Russell Chapter, DAR, and the Chief Blackhoof Memorial Committee) commemorate the site.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Blackhoof's Town / St. Johns (Black Hoof's mound and cabin) (mound) — south part of St. Johns village, on the Clay-Union township border; cabin later stood on lot 29, to 1831 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1822 — A two-story, 18-by-24-foot log house is built for Black Hoof on what becomes lot 29 in St. Johns, after the Quaker mission is established at Wapakoneta.
2. 1831 — Black Hoof, principal chief of the Shawnee, dies at his home near St. Johns at an advanced age; his body lies in state there before burial nearby.
3. 1834-12-01 — Clay Township is organized by the Allen County commissioners on petition of its residents; the first township election is held December 20, 1834, at James H. Coleman's house, with eleven votes cast.
4. 1835 — Daniel Bitler and John Rogers plat the village of St. Johns over the vacated site of Blackhoof's Town, settling their disagreement over its name by casting lots; the original plat holds 56 lots.
5. 1848 — Clay Township becomes part of the newly created Auglaize County.
6. 1888 — A county boundary adjustment exchanges land between Stokes Township (Logan County) and Goshen Township, affecting Clay Township's eastern edge.
7. 1893 — George Geyer lays out Geyer village on the farm he had entered in 1840; a store and warehouse follow soon after the Ohio Southern Railroad's construction.
8. 1980 — The Auglaize County Historical Society erects a marker at the site of Blackhoof's Town, St. Johns.

Stories

Black Hoof's last home

By the 1820s, Black Hoof (Catahecassa), the aged principal chief of the Shawnee, had spent decades adapting his people's strategy from resistance to accommodation, settling most of Ohio's remaining Shawnee at Wapakoneta. Driven from the Shawnee towns on the Great Miami in 1780, he had first pitched his tepee on a large gravel mound at what became St. Johns, a spot that gave him a wide view of the surrounding country; after Quaker missionaries arrived at Wapakoneta, they had a proper log cabin built for him on the same ground in 1822. He died there in 1831, reportedly 110 years old, having outlived the era of Shawnee resistance he had once led as a young war leader. His body lay in state at the log house before burial on a nearby ridge, with deer and wild game laid outside for the funeral feast, and he died only months before the treaty forcing his people's removal to Kansas took full effect. Within four years, Daniel Bitler and John Rogers platted a new village directly over his old town, and settled their own disagreement over what to call it by the same method that had once decided so much on this ground: casting lots.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Wapakoneta City97% of residentsTeays River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Jackson Center Village3% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Lakeside Estates Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-18: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 1 of 1 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

Ballot issues

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-24

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