Darby Township, Pickaway County

How Darby Township, Pickaway County began

Darby Township, in the northwest corner of Pickaway County, was first organized in 1803 as the second township of Franklin County -- one of the very first four townships laid out anywhere in that county -- and became part of Pickaway County when it was formed in 1810. Its earliest white settlers, the Poulson brothers from Virginia, arrived on Darby Creek about 1802, finding Wyandot hunters still camped nearby; the little hamlet of Palestine, laid out in 1829 on Deer Creek, was for decades the township's trading center before it faded. The township takes its name, and Darby Creek its own, from a Native chief remembered only as Darby. Today it is a rural township centered on the census-designated place of Derby, with the Franklin County line and Big Darby Creek, now a state and federally designated scenic river, forming much of its northern and eastern edge.

Settled c. 1800-1802 (the Poulson brothers -- Andrew, Cornelius, John, Elijah and William -- from Virginia), incorporated organized May 10, 1803, as the second township of Franklin County (boundaries then differed from today's); became a township of Pickaway County when the county was formed in 1810, by the Associate Judges of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.

Where the name comes from

Both the township and Darby Creek, which forms its eastern boundary, take their name from a Native chief remembered in the 1880 county history only as 'Darby.' That history's account of neighboring Muhlenberg Township, through which the same creek flows and where the village of Darbyville stands, describes the area as 'the home of the Shawnee Indians' and locates 'the camp and burial place of the band to which the chief, Darby, belonged' on the creek near Darbyville. No source consulted gives Darby's Shawnee name or explains how the English name 'Darby' came to be applied to him.

Before the town

The 1880 county history's own chapter on Darby Township records that 'Indians of the Wyandot tribe, from the region of Upper Sandusky, remained in the township for several years after the first white settlers came.' They kept a camp on Darby Creek, on ground later owned by David Davis and still known in 1880 as 'Indian thicket' for its thick black-haw cover; the Wyandot buried many of their dead there, and settlers later plowed up skeletons along with guns and other implements. Relations were friendly: three Wyandot men who stayed on after the others left, named Wysock, Canoe and Woyathe, brought in skins and meat to trade with settlers for shoes, stockings and clothing. The township's own name, and that of Darby Creek forming its border, come from a different account: the same county history's chapter on neighboring Muhlenberg Township describes the wider area as Shawnee country and names a chief called Darby whose band camped and buried its dead near the creek by Darbyville, a few miles downstream from Darby Township itself. The 1795 Treaty of Greenville, signed by the Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware), Miami, Ottawa and other nations, had ceded this land to the United States a few years before the first Poulson brothers arrived.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee.

• Indian thicket (camp) — on Darby Creek within Darby Township, on ground later owned by David Davis, occupied by Wyandot people into the years after the first white settlement, c. 1800s-1810s (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1795 — The Treaty of Greenville cedes most of what becomes Ohio, including the future Darby Township, to the United States.
2. 1803 — On May 10, the Associate Judges of Franklin County organize the land between Darby Creek's forks and the Scioto River into the county's second township, naming it Darby township.
3. c. 1800-1802 — The Poulson brothers -- Andrew, Cornelius, John, Elijah and William -- travel from Virginia on pack-horses, settle briefly near Chillicothe, then move to Darby Creek and take up land within a short distance of each other.
4. 1804-1805 — Peter Long, from Rockingham County, Virginia, becomes one of the first settlers on Opossum Run.
5. 1810 — Pickaway County is formed from parts of Ross, Fairfield and Franklin counties, and Darby Township becomes one of its original townships.
6. 1826 — Joseph Dalby arrives with his wife and four children from Frederick County, Virginia, and settles in the township.
7. 1829 — Josiah Rush and George Alkire lay out the hamlet of Palestine on Deer Creek, on the township's western border.
8. 1835 — Joseph Chenoweth builds the Harrisburg mill, the first grist-mill on Darby Creek within the township.
9. 1844 — The township's first church building, a log Free Will church open to any denomination, is erected by the Methodists.
10. 1870 — The Renick church is built at a cost of about $2,300, named for Benjamin F. Renick, a resident since 1841 who was active in its construction.
11. 1984 — Big Darby Creek is designated an Ohio State Scenic River; it is added to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System in 1994.

Stories

Indian Thicket

Long after the first Poulson brothers had settled on Darby Creek, a band of Wyandot people from the Upper Sandusky region kept a camp nearby, on ground the 1880 county history says was later owned by David Davis. It was thickly grown with black-haw, and settlers came to call it simply 'Indian thicket.' The Wyandot buried their dead there, and years afterward farmers plowing the ground turned up skeletons along with guns and other implements the dead had been buried with. Most of the band eventually moved on, but three men stayed behind for some time: Wysock, Canoe, and Woyathe, who made their living the way many departing Native families did in those years, bringing in deer skins and wild meat to trade with their white neighbors for shoes, stockings, and clothing. The county history calls the relationship between the Wyandot and the settlers 'of a friendly nature' -- a rare specific, named account of coexistence in a township whose deeper native history is otherwise recorded only in general terms.

A Creek Named for an Indian Chief

Darby Township and Darby Creek both carry the name of a man the record barely describes: an old Indian chief called Darby, whose band the 1880 county history places a few miles downstream, camped and burying their dead near what became the village of Darbyville. No source gives his nation or his own name, explains why English-speaking settlers called him Darby, or says when he lived there, and the creek that bears his name today runs for miles through country -- including this township -- where no other trace of him or his people is recorded. It is a reminder of how much of the region's native history survives only as a name on a map, attached to a man about whom almost nothing else was written down.

Palestine, Once a Stirring Little Place

Josiah Rush and George Alkire laid out Palestine on Deer Creek in 1829, and for the rest of the century it was Darby Township's commercial heart: general stores changed hands from Rush and Alkire to John V. Davis to Samuel Diffenderfer to a long run under Joseph Tenney, who 'sold goods there many years and acquired a fortune' before retiring to New Hampshire. The hamlet had its own physicians -- Dr. Olds from about 1830, then a procession of others from Vermont, Columbus and Hocking County -- its own post office, and its own United Brethren church, organized in 1844 at the house of Nimrod Huffman. By 1880 the county historian was already writing about it in the past tense, calling it 'a place once a stirring little place,' its trade slowly drawn away as the township's farms consolidated and its roads changed. Little of that commercial life remains visible in Darby Township today.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Mount Sterling Village49% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Commercial Point Village18% of residentsGroundwater wells (6 wells)
• Village of Orient13% of residentsGroundwater wells (7 wells)
• Columbus Public Water System7% of residentsScioto River (Griggs & O'Shaughnessy), Hoover Reservoir on Big Walnut Ck, plus wells
• Darbyville Village5% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Johnson Mobile Home Park3% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Sunset Mobile Home Park2% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Timberlake Water System2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Power plants (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (8)

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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-06-09

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