Delaware Township, Defiance County

How Delaware Township, Defiance County began

Delaware Township lies in south-central Defiance County, crossed by the Maumee River and, since the 1870s, by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which gave rise to its two villages, Delaware Bend and Sherwood. William Snook entered land where the railroad now crosses the Maumee by 1827; his family, like others, traded corn with the Native people who remained until their removal about 1840. Forty-three settlers voted in the township in October 1845, the year Defiance County was created. W. D. Hill & Co. laid out Delaware Bend in 1874, William Taylor and William Rock laid out Sherwood in 1875, and the township held 2,030 residents in 2020.

Settled by 1827, platted 1874 (Delaware Bend village), by William Snook and other settlers on the Maumee.

Where the name comes from

The 1883 county history does not say how the township got its name. The village of Delaware Bend is named for a bend of the Maumee where, that history says, Delaware (Lenape) people once had a settlement, and the name Delaware is probably from the same source.

Before the town

Warner's 1883 county history, in the reminiscence of Dr. W. R. Snook, says his grandfather William Snook settled by the Maumee in Delaware Township when only one store, a trading post, stood at Defiance, and that Snook himself, born in 1835, recalled seeing the family's dooryard filled with Native people bartering coon and deer skins for corn, five years before their removal by the government in 1840. He says his father, Wilson H. Snook, was given the Native name 'Tobochimo' because he never took advantage of them in trading. The village of Delaware Bend takes its name from a bend of the Maumee where, the county history says elsewhere, Delaware (Lenape) people camped.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware).

• Delaware Bend, a Lenape camp on the Maumee (camp) — Delaware Bend on the Maumee, south-central Defiance County, before 1840 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1828 — Johnny Appleseed starts a nursery near the mouth of the Tiffin River above Defiance; Delaware Township settlers Thomas Warren, Nathan Shirley, Lewis Platter and Samuel Hughes plant orchards from its stock.
2. 1828 — William Snook, who had entered land in Delaware Township where the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad now crosses the Maumee is settled there by the winter of 1827-28, when his sons George, John and Peter hunt a bear in a den tree; only one store, a trading post, then stood at Defiance, and the nearest road south of the river was Wayne's trail to Fort Wayne.
3. 1840 — The federal government removes the Native people remaining in this part of Ohio; Dr. W. R. Snook, born in 1835, remembered the family's dooryard filled with Native people bartering coon and deer skins for corn.
4. 1845-10 — Forty-three named Delaware Township residents cast votes in the October election, per the 1883 county history's voter list.
5. 1868 — A Methodist Episcopal church is built about this year at the later site of Sherwood, organized by Elias Miller, Jacob Cone, Aaron Mitchell, Uriah Smith and John Rannel and their wives, with the local preacher Rev. Archibald Robertson.
6. 1873 — The Dunkard (German Baptist Brethren) congregation of Lick Creek, which had organized in the township with about thirty-five members, builds a 34-by-56-foot church for $1,000, the first church built in the vicinity; it numbers about 114 members.
7. 1874 — W. D. Hill & Co. lays out the village of Delaware Bend on the Maumee, with 170 lots offered at first sale.
8. 1874 — Rev. Jonas Lower organizes a United Brethren society at the place where the village of Sherwood stands; it builds a church costing $1,350 in 1879 and has 38 members.
9. 1875 — William Taylor and William Rock lay out the village of Sherwood on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, with about seventy-five lots north of the track; Elias Miller lays out seventy-two south of it in 1879.
10. 1880 — A frame Gothic Catholic church, costing $3,000, is built at Delaware Bend under Father Frederick Ruhen.
11. 1883 — The county history calls Delaware Bend and Sherwood prosperous villages that owe their existence to the railroad: Delaware Bend has about fifty houses, three groceries, two saloons, a blacksmith shop, a saw mill, a dry goods store and two doctors, and hopes for a branch railroad from Bryan.
12. 2020 — The census counts 2,030 residents in Delaware Township, which also holds the village of Sherwood.

Stories

Orchards from Johnny Appleseed's nursery

About 1828, John Chapman -- Johnny Appleseed -- cleared ground near the mouth of the Tiffin River, a mile or so above Defiance, and sowed it with apple seed in his usual style: fence it, leave it, come back when the trees were ready. When the seedlings numbered in the thousands, he moved them to a plot across the river and sold them off through a resident agent. Four Delaware Township settlers -- Thomas Warren, Nathan Shirley, Lewis Platter and Samuel Hughes -- planted orchards from that stock, and the 1883 county history credits Chapman's nursery as the source of most of the early orchards along the Maumee and Auglaize bottoms across three counties. One old Indian orchard remembered at Delaware Bend was, by local reckoning, grown from seed Chapman had planted and later replanted by a settler named Montgomery Evans and a Frenchman named Lumbard.

A railroad town at Delaware Bend

Delaware Township stayed a river-bottom farming community for decades until the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached it in the 1870s. W. D. Hill and Company laid out the village of Delaware Bend on the Maumee in 1874, on a townsite the 1883 county history says was platted "almost in the woods," offering 170 lots that commanded a fair price at the first sale. Within a decade the young town had about fifty houses, three groceries, two saloons, a blacksmith shop, a sawmill, a dry goods store, two doctors and a $3,000 frame Catholic church with a cupola and bell, built in 1880 under Father Frederick Ruhen for a congregation of about thirty. The railroad that built Delaware Bend also built Sherwood, and the county history says a branch line from Bryan in Williams County was hoped for.

Three boys and a bear in a den tree

In the winter of 1827-28 George, John and Peter Snook, boys of fourteen to eighteen, went out coon hunting, as was the custom, since coon skins were legal tender for taxes and trade on the frontier. About three miles from home they found what looked like a den tree and felled it. George, the eldest, ran in with the dog to kill the coons as they came out, but the tree held a large black bear, which grappled with him, bit through his left arm in several places, stripping the flesh from the bone, and bit him in the left cheek. John and Peter struck at the bear with their axes while George, covered in his own blood, succeeded in forcing his right arm down the bear's throat until it choked, and the two fell together in the snow. The younger boys pulled George free and dragged him home, since he had lost so much blood he could not stand. A passing Indian traced the bear's tracks a few rods and found it too badly hurt to rise, and killed it with his hawk. Dr. W. R. Snook recounts the story, from the family, in Warner's 1883 county history.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Defiance City59% of residentsMaumee River (via 74-acre upground reservoir)
• Sherwood Village35% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Ayersville Water and Sewer District2% of residentsMaumee River (via 74-acre upground reservoir)
• Ney Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Christi Water System Inc1% of residentsMaumee River (via 74-acre upground reservoir)
• Brunersburg Wd - Brunersburg1% of residentsMaumee River (via 74-acre upground reservoir)
• Brunersburg Wd - Airport0% of residentsMaumee River (via 74-acre upground reservoir)
• Brentwood Community MHP Llc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 1 of 1 passed.

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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-09

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