Duchouquet Township, Auglaize County

How Duchouquet Township, Auglaize County began

Duchouquet Township, the largest in Auglaize County, surrounds the city of Wapakoneta and takes its unusual name from Francois Duchoquet, a French trapper who lived among the local Shawnee. The township was organized March 4, 1833, while still part of Allen County, and gained additional territory from Shawnee Township, Allen County, when Auglaize County was formed in 1848. It was the heart of the Shawnee reservation lands centered on Wapakoneta before removal in 1832, and it is the only Duchouquet Township in Ohio.

Settled 1830s, incorporated March 4, 1833 (organized as a township).

Where the name comes from

Named for Francois Duchoquet (also spelled Duchouquet), a French-Canadian trapper and trader who lived among the Shawnee near Wapakoneta; it is the only township of this name in Ohio.

Before the town

Duchouquet Township contains Wapakoneta, the site of the Shawnee council house and the center of the ten-mile-square Shawnee reservation established by the 1817 Treaty of the Maumee Rapids. The Shawnee had moved into the area after Miami occupants were pushed out in the 1780s, and the township's namesake, French trapper Francois Duchoquet, lived among them. The fuller record of the reservation includes Chief Black Hoof and the 1832 removal.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Wapakoneta Shawnee reservation and council house (village) — city of Wapakoneta, within the township, 1817-1832 (hmdb.org)

Timeline

1. 1817 — The Treaty of the Maumee Rapids sets aside the Shawnee reservation centered on Wapakoneta, within the future township.
2. 1832 — The Wapakoneta Shawnee are removed to Kansas.
3. 1833 — Duchouquet Township is organized, March 4, while still part of Allen County.
4. 1833 — After a February meeting at the house of Jeremiah Ayers in Wapakoneta, settlers petition the Allen County commissioners at Lima for a township to be called Duchouquet; the first election is held at Ayers's house in April, choosing Peter Hammell, William Patton and Shadrack Montgomery as trustees.
5. 1834 — The published list of township trustees and clerks begins in 1834, with H. D. Williams as clerk; the 1833 election had chosen James Elliott clerk and John Tam treasurer.
6. 1836 — School District No. 1 covers the whole township; its school is supported by subscription until the township fund begins to supplement it in 1837.
7. 1837 — The trustees carve a new District No. 4 out of the eastern sections of the township; District No. 5 follows in 1839 and Districts 6 and 7 in 1844, giving seven school districts.
8. 1848 — Auglaize County is formed; six square miles previously in Shawnee Township, Allen County, are attached to northern Duchouquet Township.
9. 1854 — Subscription to supplement the public school fund, practised in District No. 1 since 1837, ends.
10. 1856 — Ephraim Crider platts Cridersville in the northwest quarter of section 35 on the Dayton and Michigan Railroad, the township's second village.
11. 1886 — Oil pools near Cridersville are tapped on the Delong and Sellers farms; the township's pools are described as a continuation of the Allen County field.
12. 1891 — Laborers deepening a creek bed in section 22 uncover the tusks of a mastodon; they saw them off and carry them to Logan County, and the skeleton is not recovered.
13. 1902 — Duchouquet Township has three country churches and nine sub-district schools; the school enumeration outside the villages is 195, with 134 pupils attending on average.
14. 2020 — The census counts 14,676 people in Duchouquet Township.

Stories

The trapper the township is named for

Duchouquet is the only township of that name in Ohio. It is named for Francis Duchoquet, a French trapper who lived among the local Shawnee. The township contains Wapakoneta, where the Shawnee built a council house and where a reservation was set aside by treaty in 1817. It was organized in March 1833, the year after the Shawnee were removed, and is now the largest township in Auglaize County in both area and population.

A trading stockade on the Auglaize

Before the Shawnee council house and the Wapakoneta reserve, a Frenchman named Francis Duchouquet and two companions built a trading post on the Auglaize, a stockade about half a mile northeast of the later town on what the 1905 county history calls the Shafer farm. A spring in the southwest corner of the enclosure supplied the traders, and some older histories call the place Fort Auglaize. Duchouquet stayed on among the Shawnee for decades as interpreter under Governor Cass and Indian agent John Johnston, and the county historian records that at the 1831 treaty negotiations the commissioner had the old man made drunk and removed so that a more pliable interpreter could take his place. When settlers petitioned in 1833 for a township of their own, they gave it his name, and it is the only Duchouquet Township in Ohio.

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

Reported bedrock limestone (carbonate) aquifer wells (7 deep) and a sand-and-gravel aquifer (2 shallow wells) The water here

• Wapakoneta City85% of residentsTeays River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Lima City9% of residentsAuglaize River and Ottawa River, stored in city upground reservoirs
• Cridersville Village5% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Brightstar Lima MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Lakeside Estates Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-18: county board of elections.

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 2025-08-28

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