Concord Township, Fayette County

How Concord Township, Fayette County began

Concord Township lies in southwestern Fayette County against the Clinton County line, between Sugar Creek on the east and the Clinton border on the west, with Rattlesnake Creek dividing it nearly in half. It was settled in 1808, when John Wright and his brother David came from the Paint Creek valley to Sugar Creek, and was set off from Green Township by the county in 1818. Its only village, Staunton, grew up along the state road before it was formally laid out in 1849, and never had a railroad, which the 1914 county history blamed for its decline. The township has no incorporated place and about 960 residents (2020).

Settled 1808, incorporated 1818 (township set off from Green), by John Wright and David Wright (early settlers).

Where the name comes from

The 1881 county history says the circumstances of the naming were 'not now ascertainable,' adding only that the inhabitants were generally thought to deserve the name. Concord was one of the most common township names in Ohio; this is one of seven Concord Townships in the state.

Before the town

Little Native history is recorded for Concord Township itself. The 1872 pioneer record notes an Indian grave found on Eli Lyon's farm, from which skeletons and bones were dug, and states that there were no earthworks in the township. When Jeremiah Dunn, the first person to die in the Wright neighborhood, was buried without coffin or graveyard, his body was wrapped in a blanket and laid in 'an old Indian burying ground' on the east bank of Paint Creek; the history does not say where along the creek this was, and Paint Creek does not run through Concord, so the site is probably outside the township. The same record says the Native occupants of the county around 1750 were Shawnee, naming the Piqua and Chillicothe divisions. A frontier story in both the 1881 and 1914 histories has Alexander Cupper, captured with Daniel Boone's party and condemned at Old Town, breaking through the gauntlet and hiding in the forest of what is now Concord Township on the Little Wabash before escaping to the Ohio River; the date given (1783) and details are uncertain. The nearest documented Woodland site, the Beam Farm Woodland Archaeological District near Sabina, is across the line in Clinton County.

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

• Indian grave on the Eli Lyon farm (burial) — farm of Eli Lyon, Concord Township (exact location not given), unknown (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1793 — Peter Lee, an assistant surveyor with Nathaniel Massie's exploring parties of 1793-1795, is the probable namesake of Lee's Creek, which crosses the township's southwest corner.
2. 1808 — John Wright, who had come to the Scioto valley in 1798, moves with his bride Ann Cook to Sugar Creek; in the fall his brother David builds a cabin on a knoll nearby.
3. 1810 — Fayette County is organized from Ross and Highland counties with six original townships; the ground of Concord lies within the original Green Township.
4. 1815 — Peter Marks buys 240 acres near the later village of Jasper Mills, then must pay for the land a second time when his title proves void.
5. 1818 — On May 1 the county court records that the commissioners have set off a new township called Concord and orders a justice of the peace elected at Edward Figgins' house.
6. 1824 — Four or five families build a school cabin in the center of the Randolph survey (the history gives 1824 or 1825); the first school had stood on the bank of Sugar Creek, taught by William Sweet.
7. 1828 — On March 3 the township's boundaries are first defined; the same year Joseph Marks builds a cabin on the Washington and Staunton road, with no house between it and Buena Vista.
8. 1830 — The township's Methodists build a log church (between 1830 and 1832), replaced by a frame church on the same site in 1850 or 1851.
9. 1835 — Michael Marks opens a blacksmith shop at the settlement that becomes Staunton.
10. 1842 — Thomas J. Craig comes from Greenfield and opens Staunton's first general store.
11. 1849 — On March 3 land north of the Washington-Leesburg state road is added to Concord from Green 'for the convenience of schools and working the roads.'
12. 1849 — Residents sign an agreement on September 5 to lay out Staunton along the state road; commissioners are named September 19 and John L. Burnett surveys the town November 25.
13. 1880 — Staunton has about 125 people, with three groceries, two blacksmiths, a wagon maker, two shoemakers and a physician.
14. 1914 — Staunton has fewer than 100 people and a couple of general stores; the county history counts it among the towns the railroad era passed by.

Stories

Flax sown through the snow

John Wright served in the War of 1812, and while he was away his wife, Ann, ran the Sugar Creek farm. With the help of a small boy, who plowed while she hoed, she raised and gathered nine acres of corn that yielded four hundred bushels. A pioneer belief held that flax had to be sown on Good Friday to do well. Her husband had broken the ground the day before, but that night six inches of snow fell. She dressed warmly and sowed the seed through the snow anyway, and the 1881 county history says she often boasted of the crop that followed.

A quart of apple seeds

George Moore's family came from Kentucky to Sugar Creek about the time John Wright settled there in 1808. When Mrs. Moore wanted to visit her native Kentucky she hired a horse from Wright, agreeing to have it shod and to bring him back a quart of apple seeds as payment. She kept the bargain to the letter, and from those seeds was planted the first orchard in southern Fayette County. In 1881 some of the trees were still standing and bearing fruit; the Moores themselves had moved on to Indiana around 1820.

A village that waited for a railroad

Staunton grew up where the state road crossed the country near Sugar Creek and Hankin's Run. Michael Marks opened a blacksmith shop there in 1835, Thomas J. Craig brought a store from Greenfield in 1842, and log houses followed. On September 5, 1849, eighteen residents agreed to have the place formally laid out with two rows of lots on each side of the state road, 'paying due regard to the buildings now up.' John L. Burnett surveyed it that November. The town then waited for a railroad that never came: projects were floated year after year, and the 1881 history hoped for a Columbus and Maysville line. By 1914 Staunton had fewer than a hundred people and a couple of stores, one of the original towns of the county 'that the railroad era materially injured.'

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

Four wells behind the plant on the north end and two or three on the farm next to the YMCA; the city's CCRs say six supply wells in all. Water drawn from Paint Creek fills the city's own reservoir system; about two-thirds of demand is Paint Creek surface water and about one-third comes from the well field, which is used year-round, not only as backup. The water here

• Washington Court House93% of residentsPaint Creek (Washington C.H. Reservoirs) + wells
• Sabina Village6% of residentsGroundwater wells (6 wells)
• Ross County Water Co. Inc1% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Fayette County - culpepper Subdivision0% of residentsPaint Creek (Washington C.H. Reservoirs) + wells
• Bowersville Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-06-03

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