Clinton Township, Wayne County

How Clinton Township, Wayne County began

Clinton Township, in the southwest corner of Wayne County, was formed on June 7, 1825, the last of the county's sixteen townships, and named for Governor DeWitt Clinton; before 1825 its land was Pike Township, formed in 1817. Colonel William Crawford's 1782 army is said to have camped near its Newkirk Spring, and the Newkirk, Odell and Oram families settled it from 1814. Shreve, on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, was founded in 1853 and incorporated in 1859, and the Kister Mill at Millbrook is on the National Register. The township had 3,165 residents in 2020.

Settled 1814 (Newkirk, Odell and other families), incorporated 1825-06-07 (township formed from Pike Township), by Nathan G. Odell, John Newkirk, Joshua and Thomas Oram and others.

Where the name comes from

Named in honor of Governor DeWitt Clinton (1878 county history).

Before the town

The 1878 county history, which devotes a chapter to Colonel William Crawford's 1782 expedition against the Sandusky towns, holds that the army marched through Clinton Township, camping north of Odell's Lake, and recounts a family tradition that volunteer Isaac Newkirk found the spring that bears his name there. Two Crawford stragglers were killed by Shawnee scouts in the county. Settlers' accounts add that Indians helped raise an early corn-cracker mill about 1814 and that a blockhouse and stockade stood in the neighborhood for the settlers' safety. Wayne County as a whole has a recorded Delaware (Lenape), Wyandot and Shawnee history.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Delaware (Lenape), Wyandot.

• Crawford expedition camp near Odell's Lake and Newkirk Spring (camp) — Clinton Township, north side of Odell's Lake, May 1782 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1782 — Colonel William Crawford's army marches west from the Muskingum toward Sandusky; the 1878 county history places it at Butler's spring near the Wayne County line on May 30 and holds that it passed through Clinton Township, north of Odell's Lake.
2. 1814 — Settlers including Nathan G. Odell, John Newkirk, the Orams and the Odells come to the township; an early settler builds a log corn-cracker mill near the Newkirk Spring, with some Indians helping to raise it, and a blockhouse and stockade shelter the neighbors at night.
3. 1817 — Pike Township is formed from the south half of Springfield and the rest of that township, covering the future Clinton Township's exact territory; Springfield disappears from the records after two years.
4. 1825 — Clinton Township is formed by order of the commissioners on June 7, the last of Wayne County's sixteen townships; it replaces Pike Township and is named for DeWitt Clinton.
5. 1825 — The township's first election is held in the cabin of John Jones; Nathan G. Odell is chosen first justice but declines to serve.
6. 1853 — Lots in Shreve (first called Clinton Station, named for Thomas Shreve) are sold at private sale in March and April; the first house is built by Neal Power and D. K. Jones is the first postmaster and merchant.
7. 1859 — Shreve is incorporated as a village on December 26; its first election on March 10, 1860 chooses V. D. Manson mayor.
8. 1868 — The corporation limits of Shreve are made a separate school district.
9. 1870 — The township's population is 1,502.
10. 1974 — The Kister Mill at Millbrook, in Clinton Township, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 10.
11. 2020 — Township population recorded at 3,165 (3,081 in 2010 and 3,196 in 2000).

Stories

Perriopolis, the town that never was

Not every plat filed at the county recorder's office became a town. In September 1816, Isaac Newkirk, father of John, Henry and Reuben Newkirk, laid out a town in Clinton Township and named it Perriopolis; the plat was recorded the same day it was drawn, in Volume 1, pages 168-9. But the county history records its entire subsequent history in a single sentence: no lots were ever sold, and no buildings were ever erected there. Perriopolis stands in Ben Douglass's 1878 account as a reminder that a recorded plat was only ever a proposal -- the real village that grew up in the same township, Shreve, would not exist for another thirty-seven years, and only then because a railroad, not a recorder's stamp, gave it a reason to be built.

Crawford's army and the Newkirk Spring

In May 1782 Colonel William Crawford led a force of Pennsylvania and Ohio-country volunteers across Ohio against the Indian towns at Sandusky, with orders to destroy them 'with fire and sword'. The 1878 county historian, Ben Douglass, insisted it had marched through Clinton Township and camped near Odell's Lake, and he met resistance from neighbors who pointed to a score of other exact campsites. His evidence was a family story: Isaac Newkirk of Washington County, Pennsylvania, a volunteer in the expedition, had found a fine spring near the lake, and so liked it and the prairie around it that he later entered land there; it is still called the Newkirk Spring. The campaign ended in disaster, and some stragglers were chased back into Wayne County, where Shawnee scouts killed two of them.

Isaac Lake, the Jerusalem Pilgrim

Isaac Lake came to Wayne County from New York in 1814 with his father and became, in Douglass's gently mocking words, the township's most restless seeker. He tried Universalism, Campbell's Disciples and Wesleyan Methodism in turn and spoke in tongues during the Mormon excitement. At last he set out on horseback for Jerusalem with $100 in his pocket, intending to set the city's pawnbrokers right on religion. After about two years he came home with maps and charts, walking from Philadelphia without money, convinced the Jerusalemites were sound on his doctrines. He was a farmer, a man of good morals, and always busy, says the county history.

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

Every historic place in Wayne County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Shreve Village99% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Big Prairie Community Water Company1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Nashville Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

High-hazard dams (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-09-01
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-07-16

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