Clinton Township, Shelby County

How Clinton Township, Shelby County began

Clinton Township was first organized while Shelby County was still part of Miami County, kept its name when the county was created in 1819, held a township election ordered by the county auditor on October 25, 1821, and was redrawn by the Shelby County commissioners in 1825. The Great Miami River and the Sidney feeder of the Miami and Erie Canal cross it, and it holds the county seat, Sidney, laid out in 1819-1820 on the west bank, along with the older river settlement of Dingmansburg on the east bank. Outside the city the township is rolling farmland, including the county infirmary farm. Today the township is occupied almost entirely by Sidney, and its separate rural history is thin.

Incorporated 1825 (redefined by the Shelby County commissioners; first organized as part of Miami County), by Shelby County commissioners.

Where the name comes from

The reason for the name is not recorded; Clinton is a common Ohio township name, often given for DeWitt Clinton, the New York governor and Erie Canal promoter.

Before the town

No Native American sites, villages or trails specific to Clinton Township are recorded in the county histories. The township lies along the Great Miami River corridor used by the Shawnee and other nations before removal; the county's Native history includes the Treaty of Greenville line and the Loramie Store/Fort Loramie trading post a few miles to the west.

Timeline

1. 1819 — Sidney was selected as the county-seat town site in September 1819 and surveyed in 1820 on the west bank of the Miami in Clinton Township.
2. 1821-10-25 — At a township election ordered by county auditor James Wells, Philip Coleman, Robert McClure and Rufus Carey were elected trustees and Harvey B. Foote clerk.
3. 1822-03-04 — The trustees divided the township into three road districts, Sidney, Plum Creek and Mile Creek, covering roads from the ford below Ruckman's mill and from Dingmansburg to Sidney.
4. 1825 — Clinton Township was organized as a civil township of Shelby County.
5. 1825 — At an election at the Sidney courthouse on April 4, newly defined Clinton Township chooses its trustees, and James Forsythe is among them; Coleman's commission as justice of the peace is dated June 18 and John McCreight's October 10.
6. 1835 — The township now has nine road districts, and by 1836 Alexander Stuart is serving as justice.
7. 1837-06-12 — East Sidney was surveyed on the east bank, where it absorbed the older, never-surveyed settlement of Dingmansburg.
8. 1839 — Township voters rejected a school tax 42 to 9; they rejected it again 63 to 5 in 1840 and 103 to 15 in 1841.
9. 1866 — On March 23 the Shelby County commissioners buy James Rollins's 158-acre farm in the southwest quarter of section 10 for the county infirmary; Jacob Lehman is first superintendent of the farm at $50 a month, followed by Jesse B. Howe on August 20.
10. 1869 — On February 16 the commissioners let contracts for a new two-story brick infirmary with a mansard roof about three miles southwest of Sidney, among them $14,400 for carpentry to Rouzer and Rouzer and $8,400 for the slate and tin roof to Gephart and Sanders.
11. 1912 — The Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad crosses the township north and south and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis east and west, meeting at Sidney; the infirmary holds thirty-eight inmates under superintendent Lawson Showers.
12. 2020 — The census counts 20,317 people in Clinton Township.

Stories

The school tax that lost three times

In the late 1830s Clinton Township put the question of raising a school fund by taxation to its voters at the spring elections. In 1839 the result was 42 against a school tax and 9 for it. In 1840 the vote was 63 to 5 against, and in 1841 it was 103 to 15 against, even as the county seat grew within the township. The township clerks recorded each count in the minutes alongside the election of trustees and fence viewers, and the 1883 county history copied them out.

Dingmansburg, the town across the river

East of the Great Miami, opposite Sidney, stood Dingmansburg, which the 1883 county history calls the old town that 'carries the memory back to the infancy of both Sidney and the county.' It was never surveyed as a regular town plat, but it was established enough that in 1822 the Clinton Township trustees assigned their Sidney road district to work the road from Dingmansburg to Sidney, along with the road from the ford below Ruckman's mill and the road to Hardin. East Sidney was surveyed on June 12, 1837, and by 1883 the county history described the old town as absorbed into it, with an iron bridge across the river.

The county farm southwest of Sidney

On March 23, 1866, the Shelby County commissioners bought a farm of 158 acres from James Rollins in the southwest quarter of section 10 of Clinton Township to build a county infirmary. A board of infirmary directors, C. Kingseed, M. J. Winget and H. Guthrie, appointed Jacob Lehman superintendent of the farm at fifty dollars a month, and a short time later Jesse B. Howe replaced him, on August 20, 1866. Contracts for a new building were let on February 16, 1869: slate, tin and galvanized iron work to Gephart and Sanders for $8,400, cut stone to Webber and Lehman for $2,400, carpentry and joinery to Rouzer and Rouzer for $14,400, plumbing and steam-fitting to Brooks and Light for $6,845, brickwork to Samuel and John McCune for $8,000 and painting to F. Lierman for $1,700. The county historian called it an elegant and substantial two-story brick with a mansard roof, set back from the road behind a lawn, and by 1912 it held thirty-eight inmates.

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

Primarily groundwater wells in the Great Miami River valley and Washington Township, with Tawawa Creek and Great Miami River surface intakes as backup supply The water here

• Sidney City98% of residentsGroundwater wells (Great Miami River valley + Washington Twp) with Tawawa Creek/Miami R. backup
• Shelby County Water and Sewer2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Anna Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Nursing homes (1)

Superfund sites (2)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2024: 1 of 2 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 2.

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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-16
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-05

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